Fight against sexual abuse: mass surveillance online for more protection

More and more abuse images are circulating on the net. The authors remain anonymous. Now the EU is debating exceptions to data protection. Critics say the plans are the end of digital mail secrecy.

Providers of e-mail, chat or messenger services should scan private messages in order to track down child abuse, report it to the authorities and remove it from the network. This type of control is voluntary, but urgently needed, says EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

With hashing against depictions of abuse

Johansson says she wants to start with the victims’ voices. The EU interior commissioner reads out the statements of girls: “It will destroy my life! I want to die! I’ve already tried to take my life! I can’t take it anymore!” These are voices of 17 to 19-year-old girls who are blackmailed into more and more sexual acts with nude photos, says Johansson. “Thanks to our regulation, this can now be stopped.”

In addition, the law allows technologies such as so-called hashing, in which videos or images are compared using so-called hashes in order to track down allegations of abuse. In addition, artificial intelligence should also help, for example to recognize cyber grooming, which is often used in preparation for sexual abuse on the Internet.

“In balance with the protection of privacy”

For Juan López Aguilar, the chairman of the Interior Committee in the EU Parliament, the planned exception will close a serious gap in the rules of private communication. “Harassment, pornography, grooming, sexual abuse: our fight against it must of course be balanced with the protection of privacy,” he says. “And I think that with the regulation we are also safeguarding the fundamental rights of the citizens.”

A suspicious chat control gives the digital secret of letters the death knell, says Patrick Breyer, EU parliamentarian of the Pirate Party: “Imagine that the post office would open and scan our letters without suspicion. Nobody would accept that,” said Breyer. “But that is exactly what we want to be able to do with our electronic mail.”

Risk of false suspicions

Because the procedures are highly error-prone, many innocent people could also be suspected of having committed a crime. In addition, the investigators would be filled with often useless material. Other MEPs such as Sophie in’t Veld from the liberal Renew faction also have concerns:

Let me begin by making it clear that my group will be voting in favor of the regulation. But I would like to criticize the fact that whenever there were critical questions or comments from parliamentarians during the negotiations with the Commission and the EU Council, it was immediately assumed that the fight against the sexual abuse of children was not really in favor. There was a lot of pressure there and we all know that the result on the table is legally weak.

Even so, Parliament will most likely pass the new regulation quickly. However, the EU Commission has promised to better balance data protection and child protection with a new law in three years at the latest.