The tech industry supports the fight against Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) online

DIGITALEUROPE fully supports the EU’s fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation. Our members play an important role in the battle against this despicable crime and take this responsibility seriously.

Director General of DIGITALEUROPE Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said:

“The tech industry has carried out extensive work to fight child sexual abuse online, including developing technology vital to the detection, removal and reporting of this vile material.

Our members work with law enforcement and have forged important partnerships, such as the Technology Coalition, to facilitate the collective response against this crime. Last year, thanks to the investment in technology and the commitment of our members to tackle child sexual abuse on their platforms, they made tens of millions of reports to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

In developing the long-term framework to fight against child sexual abuse, policymakers should use the opportunity to clarify how to effectively keep children safe and preserve fundamental rights. The framework should both protect users and acknowledge the need to safeguard privacy and cybersecurity, including end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) communications.

We welcome the creation of the new European Centre. It is vital that this Centre coordinates closely with its US counterpart, NCMEC, to ensure a coordinated global response to this borderless crime. As well as detection, the EU Centre can play an important role in prevention, victim support and the coordination of law enforcement activities.”

We look forward to working with the EU Institutions to help design a framework in Europe that contributes to eradicating this egregious content from our services.