The European Parliament (EP) will begin discussing a law to combat sexual abuse of minors on the Internet, the need for this is recognized by all members of the European Parliament.
The European Parliament said in a statement that during a plenary meeting this Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, there was no opposition to starting negotiations to create tough legislation that would strengthen the prevention and fight against online pedophilia.
Spanish MEP Javier Zarzalejos of the European People’s Party (EPP) will lead the negotiations in the European Parliament.
The 27 countries are to discuss legislation that will balance combating online sexual abuse of minors with the need to avoid widespread Internet surveillance.
The proposal includes a commitment to digital platforms to assess the potential for their services to be used for child sexual abuse and to find solutions to reduce these risks.
MEPs want “proportionate and effective” solutions and want websites that distribute pornographic content to have adequate age verification systems, mechanisms to remove posts of pedophilia material and a moderation process that involves people reporting treatment rather than algorithms. which are used by most platforms.
To prevent the solicitation of minors, the EP wants to strengthen parental control over platforms used by children, for example by requiring user consent in the presence of unwanted messages, for example on social networks or on pages whose target audience is children.
However, this law could face widespread scrutiny of the Internet, so MEPs want, as a last resort, temporary and limited court orders to detect and, as a last resort, remove platforms that are used to distribute child pornography or defraud minors. to this end.
In addition, the European Parliament wants to consider the possibility of identifying, through the same temporary and limited court orders, users of related platforms who subscribe to channels suspected of practicing illegal activities in this area.
The legislation also provides for the creation of an EU Center for Child Protection, which will collect, filter and distribute reports of identified cases of child sexual abuse to national authorities and Europol.