Project report

Joint Call on European Parliament to Allow the Continuation of Current Child Sexual Abuse Detection Practices

emmab · 10 Mar 2026

Abstract

Brussels, 10 March 2026 For more than a decade, online services have voluntarily deployed well-established technologies to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM). These systems, while privacy-preserving, are a foundational layer of protection for children online. Today, these protections exist because the temporary derogation from certain provisions of the ePrivacy Directive (“the Interim Regulation”) provides the legal certainty that allows companies to continue voluntary detection efforts. That protection is at risk. The Steering Group of the European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group (ECLAG) and DOT Europe urge Members of the European Parliament to ensure the swift adoption of the extension of the temporary derogation without weakening its scope. The extension proposed by the European Commission – and supported by Member States – is simple: it maintains the current legal framework so that companies can continue voluntarily detecting, reporting and removing child sexual abuse material while negotiations on the long-term Child Sexual Abuse Regulation continue. Proposals in the European Parliament to restrict this extension equate to instructing platforms to dismantle core elements of their child protection systems. Limiting voluntary detection only to previously identified material, and removing the ability to detect new abuse material or grooming, would represent a profound step backwards for child safety with immediate and tangible consequences for child protection: Unknown CSAM detection is how new victims are found, enabling them to receive support. Restricting detection to known material would allow newly created abuse imagery to circulate unchecked. Removing grooming detection would eliminate a critical prevention tool. We have seen what happens when legal certainty disappears. In the period before the Interim Regulation was adopted, reports of child sexual abuse from EU-based companies to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children dropped by 58% because companies lacked a clear legal basis to continue detection. A similar collapse in reporting must not happen again. The scale of online child sexual abuse is only growing and new technologies – including AI tools capable of generating photorealistic illegal images and videos – are accelerating the threat landscape. Its purpose is to maintain the status quo until a permanent framework is agreed. ECLAG and DOT Europe call on Members of the European Parliament to: Support a full extension of the Interim Regulation, in line with the European Commission proposal and Member State position. Preserve the current scope, including the voluntary detection of known and unknown child sexual abuse material and grooming. Ensure legal certainty for at least two years, so companies can continue to invest in and operate child safety systems without interruption. Turning off these systems will not stop abuse. It will mean abuse continues unobstructed and children go unseen. We urge parliamentarians to prevent the deconstruction of child protection mechanisms that have helped safeguard children online for more than a decade. The post Joint Call on European Parliament to Allow the Continuation of Current Child Sexual Abuse Detection Practices appeared first on ECPAT.