The Commission welcomes today's adoption by the Council of a proposal to reinstate the interim derogation from certain provisions of the e-Privacy Directive for the purpose of combating online child sexual abuse. Today's Council adoption includes the amendments that the European Parliament adopted in its vote on 9 July. The Commission has already given a positive opinion to the Parliament's amendments.
This is a positive development that restores legal certainty after the expiry of the previous interim derogation on 3 April this year. Online service providers can now continue voluntary detection and reporting of child sexual abuse on their services until 3 April 2028. Such reporting is essential for the rescue of child victims since it is often the only way to uncover abuse. The interim derogation also supports the removal of child sexual abuse material from circulation, which reduces the secondary victimisation that continues to haunt survivors of child sexual abuse for years, sometimes decades after the physical abuse has ended.
Recent alarming trends related to child sexual abuse make this decision particularly timely. The number of reports of new material increased by more than 200 times over the past 3 years, driven by the misuse of Artificial Intelligence. In parallel, there was a twelve-fold increase in reporting of online grooming. Reinstating this framework strengthens our ability to identify abuse, support victims and stop offenders.
This framework can only provide bridge solution until agreement is found on the long-term legislation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.
The Commission will continue to support the efforts of the co-legislators to come to a swift conclusion of negotiations on long-term rules, and to put in place an effective permanent system to protect children, support the rescue of child victims, enable the identification of perpetrators, and reduce secondary victimisation.
Background
The Interim Regulation lays down a derogation from certain provisions of the e-Privacy Directive for the purpose of combating online child sexual abuse.
Following the expiry of the Interim Regulation on 3 April 2026, the Council adopted a position to restore the temporary derogation. The European Parliament subsequently adopted amendments excluding from the scope interpersonal communications applying end-to-end encryption. The Commission delivered a positive opinion on the amended act. Following the Council's approval today, the rules providing for the temporary derogation have been restored.
This will allow providers of certain number-independent interpersonal communication services to continue voluntary detection and reporting of child sexual abuse on their services and removing of child sexual abuse material from them.
In May 2022, the Commission proposed a long-term legislative framework to tackle child sexual abuse: a Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse . Negotiations are currently ongoing with co-legislators on this proposal.
