Growing Concerns About Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children. Action Needed Now

 

Today is the European Day on the Protectionof Children  against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, an initiative by the Council of Europe. This year’s European Day focuses on preventing risky behaviour by children through child self-generated sexual images and/or videos. The COVID crisis has unfortunately exacerbated the problem of child sexual abuse, as the "EU Strategy for a Most Effective Fight Against Child Sex Abuse" highlighted.  Children are spending more time than before online, possibly unsupervised. While this has allowed them to continue their studies and not fall behind in the education process, there are signs that they are at an increased risk of encountering predators. 

Actions to address these problems are therefore needed. To that end, on the 9th of December, ECPM Member of the European Parliament Helmut Geuking, as co-chair of the European Parliament Intergroup on Demographic Challenges, Family-Work Balance and Youth Transitions, will organize an online discussion on “Fighting the Oversexualisation of Children and Harmful Internet Content”. But what has been done at the European level to fight against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse and is this enough? My colleague Lefteris Kaloterakis investigated the topic and found some interesting information.

The implementation of the Lanzarote Convention

The European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse aims to raise public awareness on sexual abuse of children, open up a debate on the topic and promote the implementation of the Lanzarote Convention.  This Convention is a legally binding instrument that compels states in Europe and beyond to criminalize all forms of sexual abuse of children.

Protection of children against harmful online content

This year’s European Day focuses on preventing risky behaviour by children through child self-generated sexual images and/or videos. This theme was deemed necessary as more and more children engage in sharing explicit images or videos of themselves online, underestimating the risks. Therefore, the Council of Europe believes that comprehensive prevention programmes must be set up to avoid such behaviour.

PACE report on “Fighting the Oversexualisation of Children"

Moreover, the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe (PACE)  has raised on many occasions the issue of online exploitation of children and the pervasive culture that enables this phenomenon.  For example, the report on "Fighting the Oversexualization of Children" (rapporteur Valeriu Ghiletchi (EPP, Moldova)) and the adopted resolution (2119/2016)  highlight the negative consequences of the oversexualisation and objectification of children by the media, marketing campaigns as well as television programs. It specifically underlines the fact that young boys and girls are a significant target group for the promotion of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products. As children are the recipients of these messages, they feel the pressure to conform to the beauty ideals presented to them.  Additionally, the adopted resolution asks Council of Europe Member States to study in depth the effects of the oversexualization of children, take legislative action to limit the inappropriate depiction of children in the media and advertising sectors and adopt policies to inform, educate and remind parents of the dangers their children face.

In conjunction, a new motion for resolution has been tabled in PACE in February of this year by MP Dimitri Houbron (ALDE, France) titled “For an Assessment of the Means and Provisions to CombatChildren’s Exposure to Pornographic Content”  (Doc 15077). It calls for strengthening the protection of minors from exposure to pornography, “one of the causes of sexism and persistent inequality between women and men.” Additionally, a report is currently being prepared in PACE titled “Gender aspects and human rights implications of pornography” (Doc. 14864) . Although it is not directly focused on children, it underlines the significantly negative effect pornography has on the wellbeing of society.

Fighting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children as well as child pornography at an EU level

At an EU level, the main legal instrument at our disposal is the Directive 2011/93/EU on “Combating the Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography” (13 December 2011).  This Directive clearly defines several offences related to the online exploitation of children and child pornography and sets penalties of at least five years of imprisonment for offenders. Moreover, the 2018 “Audio-visual Media Services Directive”  clearly stipulates in article 6a that “Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that audio-visual media services provided by media service providers under their jurisdiction which may impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors are only made available in such a way as to ensure that minors will not normally hear or see them” adding that “The most harmful content, such as gratuitous violence and pornography, shall be subject to the strictest measures.”.

Consequences of the Covid-19 crisis

The COVID – 19 health crisis aggravated the problem of child sex abuse, especially on the internet front. The “EU Strategy for a More Effective Fight Against Child Sex Abuse”  outlines immediate and long-term steps that will be taken. In the long term, legislation will be proposed that will require online service providers to detect known child abuse material and report the material to public authorities, something which until now was done on a voluntary basis. This piece of legislation will be proposed in the second quarter of 2021, but it will take some time before it comes into force.

Immediate actions that need to be taken

As mentioned above, currently, several technology companies voluntarily operate sophisticated detection tools that help flag child sexual abuse material and child grooming attempts in Europe and around the world. However, the incoming introduction of the European Electronic Communications Code  may make such tools illegal after December 2020. This will happen because the Communications Code expands the scope of the E-Privacy Directive  which is currently in force. The expansion aims to  include in the Directive inter – personal communications services such as messenger services and email. This will strengthen the privacy of users on one hand, but at the same time it could leave the door open for abuse (for example, “grooming”) to take place under the guise of “privacy rights”. Because the E-Privacy Directive does not contain a legal basis or requirement for gathering data on inappropriate content aimed at children, the electronic communication service providers are effectively unable to continue doing so. 

To solve this problem, the Commission proposed a stop-gap measure stated in the “EU Strategy for a More EffectiveFight Against Child Sex Abuse” which would ensure that providers of electronic communication services can continue their current voluntary practices of detecting in their systems instances of child sexual abuse after December 2020, and until a comprehensive amendment is included in the Communications Code.

However, many EU-based and international children’s organizations have expressed deep concerns that the Commission’s attempt to solve the problem will not succeed. For the Commission’s proposal to come into force, agreement is needed by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The organizations are concerned because some MEPs have opposed the stop-gap measure, citing privacy and data protection concerns, despite the fact that the proposed solution of the European Commission has a very narrow application, making it illegal to use the detection tools for any purpose other than identifying online sexual abuse.

In a letter  to the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament, children organizations from around the world underlined the importance of the detection tools adding that they are an example of a highly successful private – public partnership. They also highlight that the EU institutions must find a solution for this problem as soon as possible. I believe that every effort must be made in the coming weeks so that this issue is resolved. We must protect children who are vulnerable, without compromising the right to privacy of law-abiding citizens.