News

Published: 29 May, 2024

ChildX and Ecpat Sweden release own election survey

Children’s safety online, including their right to be free from sexual abuse, is high on the political agenda in Brussels.

Online platforms must take responsibility for stopping the spread of abusive material, but there is currently no EU legislation requiring them to do so. The European Commission has proposed such legislation, and the European Parliament has reached a common understanding on this proposal. If the common position of the European Parliament becomes reality, the possibilities to combat proliferation would be worse than they are today. Member States have not yet reached an agreement. Negotiations between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers will determine what possibilities there are to stop the spread of abuse material and grooming.

The parties’ attitudes to the proposal to prevent and combat online child sexual abuse have been presented in several election surveys (Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer, SVT).

Now ChildX and ECPAT Sweden present the first election barometer made by children’s rights organizations (within this issue) where the parties have been given the opportunity to give in-depth answers about the various parts of the upcoming EU common legislation that has been the subject of much debate.

All parties except the Sweden Democrats say they are in favour of the bill – and we think this is a welcome development, as the responses have been more negative in other surveys (Swedish Women’s Organizations and SVT). However, we would like to point out that the questions are asked in different ways in all three surveys and that SVT’s election barometer asks the question in a misleading way, which has led to most candidates later asking to change their answer. The Social Democrats are the only party that consistently answered positively in all three surveys.

The proliferation of child sexual abuse material online is a major and global societal problem. We know that its dissemination is an abuse in itself, which can have serious consequences for children’s health and development in both the long and short term. We also know that this is an issue that affects many children.

Over 60% of all abuse material detected is stored on servers located in the EU. How the EU chooses to address this issue is therefore of crucial importance for children around the world, now and in the future. The ability to stop its spread is improving as technology advances – but without permanent legislation, the EU’s important privacy protection laws will hinder children’s privacy and their right not to be sexually abused online or offline.

Several of the parties refer to the fact that they support the EU Parliament’s position when it comes to the proposal for a CSA regulation. We, ECPAT Sweden and ChildX, are very critical of the EU Parliament’s position, which is a deterioration of the possibilities to stop the dissemination of abuse material compared to the current situation.

Currently, the use of technical tools to detect child sexual abuse on their services is optional for companies. If the European Parliament’s version becomes law, technical tools would only be allowed to be used when there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a user or group of users is using the service to disseminate child sexual abuse material. Such a solution will not effectively stop the societal problem of child sexual abuse.

Instead, we support legislation based on a risk assessment of each platform. Legislation that includes the possibility to act against platforms when it comes to detecting new material to a greater extent than what the European Parliament proposes, and when it comes to detecting grooming – which the European Parliament has removed in its entirety.

ChildX and ECPAT Sweden therefore demand:

Sweden and the EU to support a regulation to prevent child sexual abuse online by detecting and removing this content. The regulation must include known and unknown abuse material and grooming. This is to effectively stop the spread of all abusive material and reduce further harm and trauma to vulnerable children.
That the Regulation covers all online platforms and that court decisions on tracing orders (obligation to use technical tools to detect abusive material on a service) must be based on a risk assessment of the service and not on the existence of reasonable suspicion of a concrete crime.
The Regulation must enable and require the development of effective and comprehensive technologies to better protect children from online sexual abuse, both now and in the future. The pace of technological development is so fast that legislation must not be an obstacle to the possibility of better stopping the spread of abusive material.

The parties were asked to answer the following questions:

Do you support a regulation to prevent child sexual abuse online by detecting and removing this content?
Do you agree that such a regulation should cover the detection and removal of known and previously unknown child abuse material?
Do you agree that such a regulation should include detecting and stopping grooming?
Do you support a regulation covering all online platforms?
Do you support a regulation that enables and requires technological developments to effectively and comprehensively prevent child sexual abuse online now and in the future?

The Moderates justify their answers to the questions as follows:

Sexual crimes against children are among the worst crimes and must be fought with vigor. For this, law enforcement authorities need effective tools. At the same time, our legislation must always meet high standards of legal certainty and protection of individual integrity and privacy. For example, honest people should continue to be able to have private conversations online and communicate via encrypted services.

The Left Party justifies its answers to the questions as follows:

Chat control was an EU proposal that would force apps and social media platforms to scan all their users’ messages. The proposal was put forward by the European Commission as part of a wider package to protect children from online exploitation.

Following criticism of the parts that would lead to mass surveillance, the European Parliament has removed all parts on automatic scanning. This has resulted in all political groups supporting the Parliament’s position. The proposal is now on hold among member states and another temporary law to combat online child sexual abuse has been extended instead.

The Left Party believes that the part of the regulation dealing with chat control would not contribute to that purpose. Furthermore, the proposal would entail mass surveillance of all communications which is not reasonable. There are more effective measures that must be taken to protect children. Child abuse must always be combated vigorously, but according to the police themselves, this requires instead and above all increased police resources, “patrolling” online, more investigators with the right skills, better collaboration and an activity where the child rights perspective is in focus. These are measures that the Left Party supports 100 percent.

The Sweden Democrats justify their answers to the questions as follows:

Working against child abuse is very important. But if by support for regulation you mean “Chatcontrol 2”, the answer is no. Legislation with unforeseeable consequences cannot be accepted by states under the rule of law. The UN Human Rights Commissioner, the EU Data Protection Commissioner and many others warn that the proposal violates fundamental human rights. All private life would be open to spying by the state, which is not compatible with a free society.

Other parties justify their answers to each question separately

QUESTION 1: Do you support a regulation to prevent child sexual abuse online by detecting and removing this content?

Social Democrats: Yes. Child sexual abuse is a heinous crime that must be stopped. As the internet has no national borders, we need rules at EU level. What is illegal in real life must also be made illegal online.

Moderates: Yes (see general justification)

Left Party: Yes (see general justification)

Christian Democrats: Yes. It is of great importance to combat child abuse online. The digital world knows no national borders, which is why joint work is needed at EU level when it comes to the dissemination of child abuse material. The use of tracing orders should be subject to judicial review to safeguard privacy and legal certainty.

Center Party: Yes. We support the version of the regulation adopted by the European Parliament. We believe that it is much more balanced, legally secure and has a greater respect for privacy than the Commission’s original proposal.

Green Party: Yes, not having legislation in place would be a betrayal of children. Sexual abuse online is increasing more and more and it is clear that we need permanent legislation. It is an enormous problem that the member states have not made any progress in their negotiations and we will continue to work on this issue in the coming years.

Liberals: Yes. For the Liberals, it is obvious that we need to do more to both prevent sexual abuse and also provide support and help to those who are exposed. The work for children’s rights and protection against child pornography and all other forms of sexual crime must be strengthened.

Sweden Democrats: No (see general justification)

QUESTION 2: Do you agree that such a regulation should cover the detection and removal of known and previously unknown child abuse material?

Socialists: Yes. It is a crucial part of the proposal and absolutely necessary. Victims of unspeakable crimes should not have to be violated again and again when material from the abuse is spread online. We must have the tools to fight this crime.

Moderates: Yes (see general justification)

Left Party: Yes (see general justification)

Christian Democrats: Yes. Abuse material should not circulate online, it must be stopped. A child who is victimized is subjected to a new abuse every time someone looks at a picture of the abuse. Victimized children have expressed that knowing that the images are circulating online means that the physical and psychological wounds from the abuse never have time to heal.

Center Party: No. We want the regulation to cover only known material. There is too great a risk that the technicians who will scan for unknown material on the platforms will get so-called false positives, which risk having fatal consequences for the individual.

Greens: Yes. According to the European Parliament’s proposal, which the Green Party supports, platforms should be required to scan for both previously known and previously unknown abusive material. In addition, we have proposed that the new EU center be tasked with scanning publicly available material for known material, in order to remove such content more quickly.

Liberals: Yes. Policies must be designed with the knowledge that images or videos of sexual abuse left online are particularly traumatizing for the victimized child, leading to the abuse happening again and again. Even in cases where the perpetrator is convicted of the crime, the images can remain forever. The Liberals believe that support should be increased to, for example, Ecpat, which has access to tools that can currently track down and take down images and videos showing child abuse. In this way, conditions are created for children who have been subjected to abuse to heal.

Sweden Democrats: No (see general justification)

QUESTION 3: Do you agree that such a regulation should include detecting and stopping grooming?

Social Democrats: Yes. In Sweden, one in four children under the age of 15 is exposed to adults who contact them for sexual purposes online.

Moderates: Yes (see general justification)

Left Party: Yes (see general justification)

Christian Democrats: Maybe. As far as grooming is concerned, it is more complex from a privacy perspective. We believe that new material and grooming should be exempted from the use of so-called tracking orders.

Center Party: Yes, we can imagine that. But it presupposes that a person also checks all such cases to avoid so-called false positives.

Green Party: Yes. We must not miss the opportunity to introduce legislation that can effectively prevent and combat grooming. The grooming scan proposed by the European Commission was condemned by experts, but we have instead proposed several other measures against grooming and that the new EU center should be tasked with working to develop more effective tools.

Liberals: Yes. The companies that run websites, social media and online games where perpetrators contact children must face tougher requirements to prevent abuse from happening and ensure that there is clear information where the child should turn to report if they are subjected to violations and abuse.

Sweden Democrats: No (see general justification)

QUESTION 4: Do you support a regulation covering all online platforms?

Social Democrats: Yes, fighting this heinous crime requires us to prevent and combat it on all platforms.

Moderates: Yes (see general justification)

Left Party: Yes (see general justification)

Christian Democrats: Yes. It should cover all platforms and also encrypted apps, otherwise it will be ineffective.

Center Party: Yes, we can support that, provided that full-range encryption is not broken at any time.

Greens: Yes, and platforms where the risk of child sexual abuse is particularly high should be subject to particularly strict requirements.

Liberals: Maybe. Above all, it is platforms where children are present that need clear regulations to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.

Sweden Democrats: No (see general justification)

QUESTION 5: Do you support a regulation that enables and requires technological developments to effectively and comprehensively prevent online child sexual abuse now and in the future?

Social Democrats: Yes. Digital platforms must not be free zones for those who commit child sexual abuse. If we don’t act, we will be left without a framework for reporting child sexual abuse online and that would be very unfortunate, and a betrayal of the thousands of children who are victims of these terrible crimes.

Moderates: Yes (see general justification)

Left Party: Yes (see general justification)

Christian Democrats: Yes. It is important to close gaps so that the tool is not circumvented.

Center Party: Yes, we do. But this presupposes that future technologies will not in any way restrict the right to full-range encrypted communication.

Green Party: Yes. We support the European Parliament’s demand that the EU center be given the task of conducting research work so that we can develop increasingly effective tools to combat abuse material and grooming in the future.

Liberals: Yes. In the development of new legislation, it is important that privacy issues are carefully analyzed. This has not been the case in the development of the proposed CSA regulation. This is one of the reasons why the Liberals voted against the proposal in the European Parliament. The proposal also contained a number of ambiguities in relation to, for example, the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including the privacy interests of encrypted digital correspondence. The Liberals have therefore concluded that we cannot support the proposal in its current form.

Sweden Democrats: No (see general justification)

Read more about the Commission’s proposal of May 11, 2022 here: EU legislation against child sexual abuse – European Commission (europa.eu)