CHATCONTROL - EDPB & EDPS: PROPOSAL TO COMBAT CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ONLINE PRESENTS SERIOUS RISKS FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Brussels, 29 July - The European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor ( @EDPS ) adopted a Joint Opinion on the Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. The Proposal aims to impose obligations related to detecting, reporting, removing and blocking known and new online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), as well as the solicitation of children, on providers of hosting services, interpersonal communication services, software application stores, internet access services and other relevant services.
The EDPB and EDPS consider child sexual abuse as a particularly serious and heinous crime.
Limitations to the rights to private life and data protection must, however, respect the essence of these fundamental rights and remain limited to what is strictly necessary and proportionate. The EDPB and EDPS consider that the Proposal, in its current form, may present more risks to individuals, and, by extension, to society at large, than to the criminals pursued for CSAM. Whilst supporting the goals and intentions behind the Proposal, the EDPS and EDPB express serious concerns about the impact of the envisaged measures on individuals’ privacy and personal data. The lack of detail, clarity and precision of the conditions for issuing a detection order for CSAM and child solicitation does not ensure that only a targeted approach to CSAM detection will effectively take place. There is a risk that the Proposal could become the basis for a generalised and indiscriminate scanning of content of virtually all types of electronic communications. The EDPB and EDPS advise that the conditions for issuing a detection order should be further clarified

Opinion europa.eu/!hyc4M7
Press Release europa.eu/!H8tN6P