On 6 April 2023, Dr. Sabine K. Witting, Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) from Leiden University, together with Dr. Mark R. Leiser (VU-Amsterdam) and Amy Crocker (ECPAT International)... Show moreOn 6 April 2023, Dr. Sabine K. Witting, Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) from Leiden University, together with Dr. Mark R. Leiser (VU-Amsterdam) and Amy Crocker (ECPAT International) are launching the outcome report of the 2nd Expert Workshop on the EU Proposed Regulation on online Child Sexual Abuse. The second in a series of workshops was held at VU-Amsterdam on 2nd & 3rd March 2023 and jointly organised by VU-Amsterdam, ECPAT International and Leiden University.The workshop aimed to facilitate open discussions and identify areas of common ground around the proposed Regulation with technical experts from various fields relevant to the proposed Regulation, including child rights, privacy, data protection, platform regulation, and fundamental rights. The proposed Regulation seeks to establish a clear and harmonised legal framework for preventing and combatting online child sexual abuse and has sparked lively debate amongst child rights and fundamental rights experts in the past months. While the goal of protecting children is a common one, concerns have been voiced from a range of groups that mandatory detection measures, if imposed at scale under the proposed Regulation, would violate the rights to data protection, privacy, and free expression as set out under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, particularly if applied in the context of end-to-end encryption. The second expert workshop was scheduled to discuss the technology-related aspects of the proposed Regulation. Key themes, including end-to-end encryption and detection technologies, were discussed to support a constructive conversation about whether and how the proposed Regulation in its current form can be applied in the existing legal and technological landscape. The main objective was to better understand the relevant provisions in the proposed Regulation, the current state of the art of detection technologies, the functioning and purpose of end-to-end encryption, and the associated risks related to fundamental rights, including privacy and security. Participants took a distinct fundamental rights perspective to assess which risks are imposed on fundamental rights and what procedural/substantive safeguards might be required in the proposed Regulation to protect such rights.The outcome of the discussions led to recommendations set out at the end of this report (see section 5). These recommendations will be used to discuss potential amendments to the relevant provisions dealing with technology and related safeguards outlined in the proposed Regulation. Show less
On 1 February 2023, the Committee of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (“Lanzarote Committee”) held an... Show moreOn 1 February 2023, the Committee of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (“Lanzarote Committee”) held an exchange of views with the European Commission on the EU’s Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (“proposed EU Regulation”). As part of this exchange, Dr Mark Leiser and Dr Sabine Witting, legal academics presented a report on the potential implications of the proposed EU Regulation.The proposed EU Regulation seeks to establish a clear and harmonised legal framework for preventing and combating online child sexual abuse. It seeks to provide legal certainty to providers as to their responsibilities to assess and mitigate risks and, where necessary, to detect, report and remove known and new child sexual abuse material as well as child solicitation on their services in a manner consistent with the fundamental rights laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and as general principles of EU law.The debate around the proposed Regulation continues to lack consensus, with child protection advocates calling for the proactive use of safety technology with robust safeguards to detect child sexual abuse in digital environment, and digital rights and privacy advocates calling such measures ‘mass surveillance’ on the other side. Such conflicting positions risk missing the complexity of the debate and hinder thoughtful child rights and human rights-based policy decisions. Privacy and safety are independent and interrelated rights that benefit from each other’s strength: high privacy standards will positively impact children’s safety online, just as the victims of child sexual abuse material have the right to privacy and protection from the images of their abuse being repeatedly shared online.The report launched today puts forward measures to address some concerns regarding the compliance of the proposed EU Regulation with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the prohibition of general monitoring obligations for digital platforms and services, as well as potential impact on specific fundamental and human rights. The report also highlights several measures the EU could take to prevent and respond to online child sexual abuse, such as setting mandatory standards for child-friendly reporting mechanisms and ensuring that adolescents are not referred to law enforcement for consensual sexual exploration. As to the EU proposal’s new EU Centre to prevent ad combat child sexual abuse, the report suggests that it should be independent of EUROPOL and serve as a platform for knowledge sharing, coordination, and EU-wide victim support. Show less
