The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) presented, on Thursday 13 April, a relatively negative study on the effectiveness and legality of the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on the removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet (see EUROPE 12950/5).
The regulation encourages content platforms and hosts to detect child sexual abuse material and to put in place procedures for the reporting of such material; injunctions to detect and remove such content may be issued by the competent authorities.
According to the EPRS, the Commission’s proposal remains vague, in particular on the required detection technologies, and poses potential risks to fundamental rights and privacy by potentially undermining end-to-end encryption of communications.
The detection orders “are not specific enough with regard to the users or the targeted content”, the research centre also says, questioning the overall need for and effectiveness of this regulation.
As the purposes of surveillance are not sufficiently defined, the regulation could pave the way for widespread surveillance of private communications, which is prohibited by the Court of Justice of the EU.
The study also notes that an increase in reported content does not necessarily lead to a corresponding increase in investigations or prosecutions, nor does it necessarily lead to better protection for children.
The regulation could also have effects contrary to those initially hoped for: parents might no longer wish to send photographs of their children to doctors for fear of falling foul of the regulation.
Children must be able to enjoy as well the protection of their basic rights and private communications as a basis for their development and transition to adulthood, the study’s authors argued. The final version of the study has not yet been published by the European Parliament, but the German website Netzpolitik has published the latest draft at this address: https://aeur.eu/f/6bi (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)