Proposal for a regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse – WS 05 2023

21 June 2023 | 10:30 - 11:30 EEST | Auditorium A1 |
Consolidated programme 2023 overview / Workshop 5

To join this session, please register for EuroDIG 2023.

Proposals: #39

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Session teaser

The European Commission has proposed a “Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse” which provides a uniform approach to detecting and reporting child sexual abuse and imposes obligations on online service providers to screen private communications for this purpose. Can the regulation ensure both privacy and child protection online?

Session description

Every child has the right to be protected from all forms of violence, and this includes the online environment. Child sexual abuse online can take many forms, including grooming for sexual purposes and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In grooming, the adult’s goal is to lure the child into a situation where they can subject the child to sexual abuse, either online, offline, or in both environments. CSAM depicts sex offences against children of any age and gender. A large portion of CSAM is hosted in the European Union.

Against this backdrop, in May 2022, the European Commission proposed a “Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse” which provides a uniform approach to detecting and reporting child sexual abuse. The proposal imposes obligations on online service providers to screen private communications for this purpose.

The proposal has been criticized for including measures which put the vital integrity of secure communications at risk and opening the door to exploitation for political control and censorship. Another criticism has been its omission of allowing voluntary detection measures to protect children from sexual abuse, which are currently covered by the temporary derogation (EU/2021/1232). This workshop aims to examine different perspectives to the proposal, to privacy, and to child protection online.

Format

The workshop will be participatory and we encourage all attendees to engage in the conversation. There will be some key participants, who will each have 3 minutes to present their arguments. There will be a moderator on site to help ensure a safe and successful session. There will also be an online moderator present to facilitate the participation of online attendees.

Follow this link to submit your questions for the workshop. The Org Team will then choose which to be discussed during the session. Please be aware, that questions arising during the workshop in the zoom chat or form in person participant may be prioritised.

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Further reading

• https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2022%3A209%3AFIN - Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse
• https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32021R1232 - Regulation (EU) 2021/1232 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 July 2021 on a temporary derogation from certain provisions of Directive 2002/58/EC as regards the use of technologies by providers of number-independent interpersonal communications services for the processing of personal and other data for the purpose of combating online child sexual abuse
• https://www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/blogs/encryption-vs-privacy-in-conversation-with-professor-hany-farid/ - Blog post and podcast by Internet Watch Foundation: Encryption Vs. Privacy: In Conversation with Professor Hany Farid
• https://ecpat.org/ecpat-project-beacon/ - ECPAT Website by ECPAT International: Placing children’s rights into the heart of the EU’s digital policy
• https://www.childsafetyineurope.com/ - Website by The European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group (ECLAG): Child Safety ON!
• https://childrens-rights.digital/hintergrund/index.cfm/topic.324/key.1772 - Joint statement by ECPAT Germany, Innocence in Danger, the German Children's Fund, and the Digital Opportunities Foundation on the European Commission's draft regulation on child sexual abuse on the Internet

People

Please provide name and institution for all people you list here.

SME

• Desara Dushi

The Subject Matter Experts (SME) support the programme planning process throughout the year and work closely with the Secretariat. They give advice on the topics that correspond to their expertise, cluster the proposals and assist session organisers in their work. They also ensure that session principles are followed and monitor the complete programme to avoid repetition.

Focal Points

• Eveliina Karhu, Save the Children Finland
• Tanja Simola, Save the Children Finland
• Lucia Hakala, Save the Children Finland

Focal Points take over the responsibility and lead of the session organisation. They work in close cooperation with the respective Subject Matter Expert (SME) and the EuroDIG Secretariat and are kindly requested to follow EuroDIG’s session principles

Organising Team (Org Team) List Org Team members here as they sign up.

• Vittorio Bertola
• Michael Tunks
• Monika Ermert
• Jutta Croll
• Torsten Krause
• Andrew Campling
• Callum Voge
• Amy Crocker

The Org Team is a group of people shaping the session. Org Teams are open and every interested individual can become a member by subscribing to the mailing list.

Key Participants

• Michael Tunks, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Internet Watch Foundation (on-site)

Michael Tunks is the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). He joined the IWF in September 2017 and since then has been actively involved in shaping policy and legislation in the UK and European Union on how to regulate the internet and respond to the threat of child sexual abuse and exploitation online. He secured core participant status for the IWF as part of the UK Government established Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse into the Internet and has helped to shape and respond to the UK Government’s Online Safety Bill, which is currently before Parliament. In Europe, Michael is an observer to the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Committee and has also been involved in establishing the European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Action Group (ECLAG), along with Thorn, Missing Children Europe, Terres De Hommes, Brave Movement and ECPAT International. The aim of the group is to co-ordinate advocacy amongst almost 60 child protection organisations around the proposal from the European Commission: Laying down new rule to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. Michael is also a regular attendee of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum and is a Committee Member for the UK’s Internet Governance Forum.

• Torsten Krause, Project Consultant "Child Protection and Children’s Rights in the Digital World" at Digital Opportunities Foundation Germany (online)

Torsten Krause is Project Consultant "Child Protection and Children’s Rights in the Digital World" at the Digital Opportunities Foundation Germany. As a political scientist and child rights researcher, he is concerned with the conditions under which young people grow up and currently focusing on contexts with (digital) media. He would like to make a contribution so that children and young people can use them independently, safely and with pleasure. From 2020 to 2023, he chaired the expert group "Children's Rights in the Digital World" based at the German Children's Fund and coordinated the joint statement by German civil society organizations on the proposal for General Comment No. 25 of the UN CRC, and also worked in the group that translated General Comment No. 25 into German.

• Dr. Desara Dushi, Postdoctoral Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (online)

Dr. Desara Dushi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Law, Science, Technology & Society group (LSTS) of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). An expert at the intersection of law and technology, she is currently involved in the COHUBICOL and ALTEP-DP projects, focusing on the implications of legal technologies in the rule of law and fundamental rights and automation of GDPR compliance. Her research interests include data protection, cybercrime, protection of children from online sexual abuse, and other AI related topics. Dr. Dushi has a double PhD degree in Law, Science and Technology from University of Bologna and University of Luxembourg.

• Kimmo Ulkuniemi, Chief Superintendent in the National Police Board of Finland (on-site)

Kimmo Ulkuniemi is law enforcement professional with a career spanning over 30 years, encompassing both national and international domains. Currently serving as the Chief Superintendent in the National Police Board of Finland, Kimmo Ulkuniemi takes charge of strategic planning, direction, development, and supervision of police operations aimed at combatting cybercrime and related offenses. Prior to this role, Kimmo served as the Assistant Director at the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation, further augmenting his expertise in tackling global security challenges.

Key Participants are experts willing to provide their knowledge during a session – not necessarily on stage. Key Participants should contribute to the session planning process and keep statements short and punchy during the session. They will be selected and assigned by the Org Team, ensuring a stakeholder balanced dialogue also considering gender and geographical balance.

Moderator

The moderator is the facilitator of the session at the event. Moderators are responsible for including the audience and encouraging a lively interaction among all session attendants. Please make sure the moderator takes a neutral role and can balance between all speakers.

• Eveliina Karhu, Save the Children Finland. (on-site)

Eveliina Karhu is an Advisor at Save the Children Finland. She is also an analyst at the organisation's hotline, the Finnish Hotline Nettivihje.

Remote Moderator

Trained remote moderators will be assigned on the spot by the EuroDIG secretariat to each session.

Current discussion, conference calls, schedules and minutes

See the discussion tab on the upper left side of this page. Please use this page to publish:

• dates for virtual meetings or coordination calls
• short summary of calls or email exchange

Please be as open and transparent as possible in order to allow others to get involved and contact you. Use the wiki not only as the place to publish results but also to summarize the discussion process.

Messages

Workshop organisers are asked to assign a reporter and provide the messages after EuroDIG in form of 3 (max. 5) bullet points.

Messages should:

• relate to the particular session and to European Internet governance policy
• be forward looking and propose goals and activities that can be initiated after EuroDIG (recommendations)
• must be in (rough) consensus with the audience.

The messages should be agreed on at the end of the workshop to make sure the audience is in consent. The Workshop Org Team has one more week thereafter to gather feedback via the EuroDIG Commenting Platform and to finalise the messages.

Video record

Will be provided here after the event.

Transcript

Will be provided here after the event.