Renew Europe Group: Of course tackling child abuse and privacy go together!
The Renew Europe group welcomes the extension of the derogation of the e-Privacy Directive to tackle child sexual abuse online.
This is already the third extension, since the Council has lost time in ongoing negotiations for a permanent legal framework, so Renew MEPs refused to sign off another simple prolongation but instead successfully strove to add certain conditions, limiting technology to where it is strictly necessary. The scope is reduced to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that is already known and to users identified by judicial authorities, while strictly guaranteeing that end-to-end encryption remains off limits.
“While tech companies now have the potential tools to make the Stasi blush, we are drawing a clear line for searching child sexual abuse online. We want to ensure end-to-end encryption stays locked and any potential scanning remains strictly focused on known illegal material and users. This is the best way forward: Europe can protect children from predators without eavesdropping on every citizen.”
Irena JovevaRenew Europe MEP, Slovenia, Gibanje Svoboda
“Today we take our responsibility. This is not a matter of wanting to, but of having to. Without this extension, a legal gap threatened to arise and internet giants would stop detecting online child abuse, and that means no reports, no investigations, and therefore no protection for our children. With this extension, companies can voluntarily detect illegal material but without chat control of encrypted messages. Is this ideal? No, but it is because of our Member States that valuable time was lost. Now, we must move forward, and we will continue to insist on a permanent regulation in which we impose concrete and clear obligations on internet giants to detect online sexual abuse, with strong safeguards and without chat control.”
Hilde VautmansRenew Europe MEP, Belgium, Anders