EU Interior Ministers discussed on Friday 8 October how to tackle and crack down on online child pornography, which is a “huge” problem, said Commissioner Ylva Johansson, who will present a new legislative proposal in December.
They were “unanimously in favour of new obligations for net operators”, commented Slovenian Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs. The proposal should include obligations to remove content, the Minister added, and contain restrictions on privacy legislation.
The proposal, currently scheduled for early December, aims to strengthen the prevention of online child pornography and will require additional efforts from platforms, but would not focus exclusively on “content removal”, a source said on 8 October, as this work is already being done and the Commission wants to have a broader approach, which it is already preparing with platforms.
This legislation is intended to complement and replace the derogation that the Commission introduced to the e-privacy Directive to combat child pornography (see EUROPE 12618/14). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)