Answer given by Ms Johansson on behalf of the European Commission
27.6.2024
The Commission’s proposal for a regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse[1] (hereinafter ‘the proposal’) covers certain providers of services that have the potential to be misused for the purpose of online child sexual abuse.
In particular, the obligations under the proposal would apply to video games providers as long as they provide interpersonal communications services, including services which enable direct interpersonal and interactive exchange of information among users.
Detection obligations following a detection order would only apply when, despite the mitigation measures taken, a significant risk of use of the service in question for the purpose of child sexual abuse remains.
The proposal incorporates some of the measures indicated in the impact assessment[2] in relation to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
These notably include the need for the competent national authorities to take into account the size and financial and technological capabilities of the provider when enforcing the regulation, including in relation to the risk assessment, detection obligations and penalties, as well as the possibility for SMEs to request free support from the EU centre, a decentralised EU agency that would facilitate and support implementation of the legislation, to conduct the risk assessment and to make available to providers detection technologies on a free-of-charge basis.
- [1] Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, COM/2022/209 final of 11.05.2022.
- [2] SWD(2022)209. The impact assessment includes data on how online gaming platforms are misused for the purpose of child sexual abuse (see in particular Annex 6, page 264 et seq., Figure 7: breakdown of grooming reports by type of service in 2019 and 2020).