EU Renews Online Child Sex Abuse Detection Powers
The renewed rule lets platforms report abusive images and grooming messages while encrypted services stay exempt as lawmakers work on broader protections.
- On Thursday, The European Union agreed to allow online platforms to scan for child sexual abuse material in users' chats, with an exemption for encrypted messaging services through April 2028.
- A mechanism enabling platforms to report abusive images lapsed on April 3, 2026, as governments and MEPs squabbled over an overhaul, though several firms promised to "take voluntary action" in the interim.
- Minister Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee welcomed the agreement, stating there is "no higher priority" than the protection of children from predators.
- Nathalie Meurens of the European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group cautioned that "temporary measures cannot become the norm," urging The European Union to deliver a durable legal framework.
- Patrick Breyer, a former advocate against child sex abuse material, criticized the extension, calling for a "paradigm shift away from the illusion of security provided by Big Tech's mass surveillance" toward targeted police work.
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63 Articles
The exception, which will last until April 2028, was adopted along with the tightening, which excludes end-to-end encrypted chat programs from the rule that some have called "chat control."
The European Union authorized online platforms on Thursday to scan chats to prevent child sexual abuse but established an exception for encrypted messaging services.
At European level, the extension of the so-called Interim Regulation for the voluntary detection of representations of sexual child abuse on the Internet has been decided. Providers of e-mail and messenger services may continue to automatically search for unencrypted content on a voluntary basis and report suspected cases to the competent authorities. End-to-end encrypted communication is now expressly excluded from the regulation.The regulation…
EU Again Allows Detection of Child Pornography Content on Messaging, Pending a Sustainable Agreement
This temporary measure, valid until 2028, revives the debate between children's advocates and privacy defenders. Scans remain optional and exclude encrypted messages from end to endThe European Union again allowed the platforms on Thursday to detect child pornography content in the conversations of their users, except those protected by end-to-end encryption.This measure has been the subject of particularly arduous deals, putting back to back ch…
EU member states have approved a temporary exemption from EU privacy legislation that will once again allow online platforms to voluntarily disclose child sexual abuse online.
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