On Thursday 27 April, experts from EU Member States discussed a new compromise on the regulation on the removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet. The day before, the European Parliament had presented its draft report on the matter (see EUROPE 13170/9).
This text is dated 21 April and modifies some definitions, such as that of child user, which is deleted (‘child user’: a natural person under the age of 17 who uses a relevant information society service). The Presidency explained that the word ‘child’ appears at least 511 times in the text of the regulation and that it may bring “incompatibilities” for Member States and the exercise of their powers.
On tools for reporting problematic content, the Presidency removes the notion of age-appropriate tools (“The provider shall establish and operate an easy to access, effective, child-friendly and user-friendly mechanism that allows users to notify to the provider information that indicate potential online child sexual abuse on its the service. Those mechanisms shall allow for the submission of notices by individuals or entities exclusively by electronic means”).
The compromise also changes the language on blocking orders: the provider shall execute the blocking order “as soon as possible and in any event within a reasonable time period set by the issuing authority”, instead of within one week after receipt. The same change is made for the dereferencing orders for search engines.
According to the German media outlet Netzpolitik, the Member States had differences of opinion at their meeting on 13 April on the competences of the European Centre to combat sexual abuse and the role of national authorities.
The regulation creates a new EU centre working closely with Europol. Member States would, for example, disagree on the scope of the centre’s competences, whether online or offline.
Links to the document and the Netzpolitik report: https://aeur.eu/f/6la ; https://aeur.eu/f/6lb (in German) (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)