Statement: EU failure to reach agreement undermines obligations to protect children

STATEMENT

Protect Children is profoundly disappointed in the European Union’s inability to ensure continued protections for children against sexual abuse online.

The failure to extend the temporary derogation to the ePrivacy Directive will remove the legal basis that enables online platforms to detect and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in the EU. At the same time, the proposed EU Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse remains stalled, leaving a critical gap in tackling online child sexual abuse in the region. 

This failure demonstrates the European Union’s readiness to turn their back on millions of victims and survivors, and on the effective prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Earlier this week, the European Union failed to reach agreement to extend the temporary rules that currently allow online platforms and service providers to scan their services for CSAM. These rules are set to expire on 3 April 2026. From that point onwards, tech companies will no longer have a legal basis to detect and remove CSAM on their platforms.

Without this legal basis, material depicting heinous sexual violence against children cannot be effectively detected or removed from the internet, allowing its continued circulation and contributing to the ongoing revictimisation of survivors. This failure will significantly hinder efforts to identify and rescue victims of child sexual abuse, as well as to track, investigate, and prosecute perpetrators.

Protect Children’s work and research provide unequivocal evidence of why detection and removal must remain in place.

The constant and endless circulation of CSAM online constitutes an abhorrent violation of children’s rights. Victims and survivors whose abuse has been recorded consistently describe enduring harm linked to the knowledge that this material continues to exist and circulate online. In Protect Children’s global study of over 25,000 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation, 84% reported severe long-term consequences. Effective detection, reporting, and removal are essential for the protection, recovery, and healing of victims and survivors.

Our new research with more than 20,000 undetected CSAM offenders, further demonstrates the scale and nature of the risk. Nearly half of the respondents reported that their first exposure to CSAM was accidental, and three in five were children when first exposed. This points to the sheer availability and accessibility of such material across mainstream online environments, including social media platforms, messaging services, search engines, and adult content sites. Furthermore, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are accelerating the creation and distribution of CSAM online.  

Crucially, the effective detection and removal of CSAM is also vital for prevention. Evidence shows a clear link between viewing CSAM and escalation towards direct harm. In our research, 42% of respondents reported seeking direct contact with a child after viewing CSAM. Limiting the spread of this material is therefore a necessary step in preventing further abuse of children.

The removal of the legal basis for detecting and reporting CSAM directly contradicts the European Union’s obligations to protect children, including under international human rights frameworks. It undermines existing efforts to combat sexual violence against children and increases the risk of further harm.

Protect Children calls for immediate action to avoid irreversible harm to children. 

The European Union must urgently restore a legal framework that ensures service providers can continue to detect, report, and remove child sexual abuse material.