On Wednesday 29 April, the European Parliament debated the urgent need to strengthen the legislative arsenal against cyberbullying. Faced with a surge in online violence, which currently affects 25% of children aged between 12 and 17 in Europe, MEPs urged the European Commission to harmonise criminal penalties and put an end to the “impunity” of the digital giants.
Glenn Micallef, Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, opened the debate by supporting the role of the Digital Services Act (DSA) as the “strongest tool” for ensuring “a safety by default approach”.
He also announced the adoption of a recommendation for an “age verification solution” based on the highest standards of data protection and an action plan built around three pillars: protection, prevention and empowerment.
Call for a European ‘Coco’s Law’. The story of Nicole “Coco” Fox, a young Irish woman who was driven to suicide after being harassed on social networks, hung over the Chamber. A number of MEPs called for the EU to adopt legislation modelled on the Irish law bearing the same name, which imposes severe penalties for the sharing of intimate images without consent and cyberbullying.
“What is illegal offline must be illegal online”, argued Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish), adding that “protection and justice should not depend on where you live”. His colleague Seán Kelly (Irish) also praised the effectiveness of the Irish model, which has already led to “almost 100 prosecutions” in three years.
Responsibility of platforms. More generally, MEPs attacked the economic model of the web giants. Catarina Martins (The Left, Portuguese) criticised a system based on “engagement through hatred” as well as “violence and aggression”.
For Katarina Barley (S&D, German), “the safety and health of young people must come before the greed for profit of the technology giants”, who exploit “shocking and dangerous” content. She pointed out the ineffectiveness of voluntary measures, calling for real European penalties.
In this context, Javier Zarzalejos (EPP, Spanish) also urged that the interinstitutional negotiations on the CSAM Regulation be concluded to avoid any “legal gap in the detection and reporting of child sexual abuse” after the ePrivacy derogation expires.
AI drift. In addition, the proliferation of deepfakes and “nudification” tools has solidified concerns. Kim van Sparrentak (Greens/EFA, Dutch) denounced the deadlock in negotiations on the AI Act, accusing the right of protecting corporate profits by refusing to ban tools that generate non-consensual sexual images on the grounds that they do not show “full nudity”.
While a majority of MEPs advocated tougher criminalisation, some, such as Petr Bystron (ESN, German), warned against “censoring the opposition” under the guise of combating cyberbullying. Others, like Sebastian Tynkkynen (ECR, Finnish), rejected any “EU surveillance structure”, believing that monitoring online messages is an “Orwellian dystopia”. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)