EU Member States agree to law that allows voluntary scanning of content

Representatives of the EU member states have reached an agreement on a law that is designed to protect children from online abuse.

Protecting teens from distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), sextortion, and other forms of online abuse has been quite a hassle. In recent years, numerous proposals have been discussed by the European Union, including a highly controversial proposal called chat control.

Both privacy and security experts have expressed their concerns about chat control, arguing it would erode end-to-end encryption, kill private communication, put our privacy at risk, and enable mass surveillance. Meredith Whittaker, CEO of Signal, even threatened to leave the EU if chat control was implemented.

Denmark, currently holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, told EU member states that it would no longer push for an EU law requiring the mandatory scanning of electronic messages.

Yet, on Wednesday, the Council of the European Union reached a consensus on Denmark’s proposition that aims to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.

As part of this regulation, online platforms must assess the extent to which their services could be misused for distributing CSAM or soliciting children. Based on this assessment, they will have to implement mitigating measures to counter that risk, such as introducing tools for users to report child sexual abuse and to put in place privacy settings for children.

To monitor these risk assessments and mitigating measures, member states will have to appoint a national supervisor. In the event of non-compliance, they could impose penalties.

Furthermore, tech companies have to assist victims who would like sexual content depicting them to be removed, or for access to such material to be disabled. To support the implementation of the regulation, a new agency called the EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse will be set up.

But most importantly, scanning content for online sexual abuse material will no longer be required, but voluntary. Companies are allowed to do that thanks to an exemption, but this exemption will expire on April 3rd, 2026. Thanks to the Council of the European Commission’s proposal, this will continue to apply.

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“I’m glad that the Member States have finally agreed on a way forward that includes a number of obligations for providers of communication services to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material,” Danish Minister for Justice Peter Hummelgaard says in a press release.

Now that the Danish proposal has been accepted, the Council of the European Union can begin negotiations with the European Parliament.

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