EU leaders have failed to tackle the crisis of online child sexual abuse – Euractiv

The next EU Parliament must act quickly and decisively to end the crisis surrounding child sexual abuse material surfacing online. Legislation on the issue has stalled, writes Sabine Saliba.

Sabine Saliba is Secretary General of Eurochild, a network of organisations and individuals working with ​Children’s rights​​​ in Europe.

As European voters go to the polls to decide on the next EU Parliament, ​decisive​ Problem on ​her ​Heads is the growing ​Crowd ​of child sexual abuse material on the Internet.

We call on the candidates for the European Parliament and the EU leadership in the next term to act quickly and decisively to tackle the crisis online, especially in light of ​The ​64% of ​Sexual abuse of children ​The material is hosted on European servers​, including Russia and Turkey.​

Over the past two years, EU leaders have been discussing the details of important legislation to combat child sexual abuse online. At the same time, sexual incitement of children online is increased by more than 300% between 2021 and 2023.

​​During this time, c​​​According to conservative estimates 200 million contents, It has been reported that images or videos depicting the sexual abuse of a child are widely circulated on the Internet. ​Internet​.

That’s three pieces of content shared online every second.

Abuse has reached record levels, exacerbated by the increasing presence of the internet in children’s lives. Through online networks and platforms, perpetrators have direct access to children and can sexually exploit and blackmail them. Videos and images of children being sexually abused are easily accessible and can be easily shared.

More than 50% of EU citizens say they would be more likely to vote for their MP if he or she supported a law to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation on the Internet, according to a survey by ECPAT.

Last year, a petition called on the EU to enact laws to combat sexual violence against children. was signed by over 540,000 people. Over 200 MEP candidates have signed a manifesto committing to putting children’s rights at the heart of their mandate – a very positive commitment ​that needs ​This must be followed by concrete measures to overcome this crisis.

If EU leaders do not listen to their voters, the child sexual abuse crisis will continue to escalate. In the time it took for Europe’s current leadership to examine this proposal, the fight against child sexual abuse has become even more complex.

A particular challenge is the rise of text-to-image-based generative AI. The Internet Watch Foundation found 20,254 AI-generated images in just one darknet forum dealing with child sexual abuse material within a single month. In May​ ​, a man​ in the USA ​was accused of creating 13,000 images of sexually abused children.

teenager Boys in Spain used AI technology to create nude images of girls in their class and shared them on WhatsApp and Telegram. They were unaware that they were committing a crime by creating child sexual abuse material.

These technologies are further proof that Europe must act now to prevent more children from falling victim to online abuse.

New study with findings from 500 children and 6,000 carers across the EU shows that children feel alone when it comes to ensuring their safety online. The internet normalises these risks to a worrying extent – one child from the Netherlands said: “If you want to be safe online, you shouldn’t be on social media.”

It is unacceptable that children are left to their own devices on the Internet. We must enable children to have a childhood free from coercion and manipulative abuse.

Many platforms use technologies​ for years​ this flag ​Sexual abuse of children ​Material. To ensure that they are applied uniformly by all companies, an EU-wide law is needed. This is why the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation was introduced two years ago.

By delaying the adoption of this law, MEPs and EU governments have de facto given perpetrators the opportunity to sexually abuse children online without hindrance.

The EU elections will bring a fresh start and the new leadership must use this opportunity to ensure that it does not abandon children as the previous leadership did.