Background
Combating child sexual abuse (CSA) is an important objective of the EU. In this connection, the Internet as an environment in which children spend a great deal of time poses a particular challenge. Despite its efforts to date, the EU is clearly failing to protect children from becoming victims of online sexual abuse. The existing regulations, which are primarily based on voluntary detection and reporting by the service providers, have proven to be inadequate to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material online. However, certain welcome efforts have been made to improve this situation. For example, the rules of the Digital Services Act (DSA) have been applicable to all online platforms since February 2024 and already contain a wide range of measures designed to ensure greater child protection. In Germany, some steps have already been taken to implement the DSA, and these need to be followed up.
In May 2022, the EU Commission proposed the European Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSA-R), “to prevent and combat child sexual abuse”, which includes several components. The aim of the CSA-R is to prevent the sexual abuse of children online (including cyber grooming), to detect, report and prosecute the perpetrators of sexual abuse of children online and to support the victims. This proposal is currently the subject of debate at both European and national level. The measures for detecting and removing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are particularly controversial, as these could, depending on their form, represent a fundamental and serious invasion of privacy. The discussion is taking place under great pressure.
Access of Family Organisations to the topic
The German family organisations have addressed the issue both as individual associations and jointly in the AGF. The AGF is involved in various debates based on its discussion paper “Digital change and its impact on families”. It is a member of the advisory board of the Federal Centre for Child and Youth Media Protection (BzKJ). As a member of and in cooperation with COFACE Families Europe (the European umbrella association of family organisations), it has participated in various expert discussions. In February 2024, at the invitation of AGF and COFACE, 25 experts from various perspectives engaged in a hybrid European expert discussion of the aims, content and next steps of the current Commission proposal.
General thoughts on the topic
The family organisations share the concern about the threat of sexual abuse in digital media. They are calling for these threats to be taken seriously and placed at the centre of considerations. The associations see it as essential task to focus the debate on the actual core of the objectives and to take the heat out of the debate, with its exaggerated polarisation between data protection and child protection, in the interests of children and their families.
In this context, the family organisations point out that the rights of the child are multifaceted. They include not only the right to protection but also the rights to participation and privacy, among others. These rights must be taken seriously and well balanced in considering measures affecting children and their families. Where there are any contradictions, questions may arise, for example: how much loss of privacy are we prepared to accept in order to achieve how much additional protection for children from sexual abuse?
Politicians have a great responsibility to protect children and young people when using digital media and technologies. This also applies to the providers of digital media and technologies. Many of their business models are geared towards high usage of their services by these target groups, but at the same time they too often deny responsibility for the dangers of usage. Without the companies, however, it will not be possible to achieve significant protection. From the parents’ point of view, though, self-regulation and self-control measures have had only a limited effect to date, although they offer at least some protection. However, this does not alter the need to add in the long term comprehensive and holistic regulations that include further measures to protect children and young people.
Families need support during the process of digital transformation and, in particular, in protecting vulnerable family members from the risks of this development. It must be recognised that families have different circumstances in which to cope with these risks. Even in the debate on a predominantly regulatory proposal, it is also important for the family associations to emphasise that general measures to improve skills in dealing with digital media, preventive services to avoid sexual abuse and specific counselling for children and families are of central importance. Children must be informed about possible sexual abuse on the Internet and cyber grooming at an early stage and in a competent manner. This includes, among other things, enhancing the self-esteem of children and young people and asking them what safety rules they need to follow to protect themselves from such attacks or what to do if an offence has already occurred. Numerous organisations already offer services aimed at families, children and young people, parents and professionals. These need to be further supported and expanded.
Nevertheless, demanding more and more digital skills from families and end users and thus unilaterally transferring responsibility for protection from digital risks to families is not the solution. Protecting children and young people from CSA is a joint task for families, educational and care institutions, business, politics and administration. This also applies to supporting victims in coping with the consequences and protecting them from secondary victimisation through the dissemination of images and videos. The family organisations therefore welcome the European Commission’s initiative.