EU to create Centre for Countering Child Sexual Abuse online

The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the governments of the EU member states (Coreper) agreed on the Council of the EU’s position regarding the draft regulation on preventing and combating the sexual abuse of children online.

Under the document, online platforms will be required to prevent the dissemination of child sexual abuse content, remove it, block access to it, and delete it from search results, CE Report quotes MIA.

The regulation foresees the creation of an EU Centre for Countering Child Sexual Abuse, envisioned as a new Union agency to support member states and online platforms in law enforcement.

The Centre will assess and process information submitted by online platforms regarding child sexual abuse material and will create, maintain, and manage a database of reports submitted to it. This information will be shared with Europol and national law enforcement authorities, and the Centre will also establish a database of indicators of child sexual abuse.

Online platforms will also be required to assess the risk of their services being misused to distribute child sexual abuse content or to groom children, while EU member states will need to establish national authorities to assess these risks and implement measures to mitigate them.

The regulation also requires online platforms to commit to scanning their services to detect child sexual abuse content, report it, and remove it.

Based on the position agreed today on the draft regulation, the Council of the EU will begin negotiations with the European Parliament to align on the final version of the legislative text. The European Parliament had already adopted its position on this regulation back in November 2023.

Фото: МИА Архива