We support the draft Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse
Dear Members of the European Parliament
Dear Representatives of Member States in the Council of the European Union
The undersigned express our very strong support for the proposal for a Regulation currently being considered by the EU to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.
We need to remind all concerned that major parts of the Regulation merely seek to make permanent, more transparent and accountable, child protection practices which have been carried out by a number of internet companies on a voluntary basis since at least 2009. The Regulation brings these child protection practices and the use of any associated technical tools within a clearly defined, transparent and accountable legal framework.
The child protection practices referred to were specifically endorsed by the EU in the Temporary Derogation, agreed on 14th July, 2021. The Derogation expires on 3rd August 2024.
Prior to the adoption of the Temporary Derogation several internet companies temporarily suspended the measures they had previously been taking to detect child sexual abuse. This resulted in a 58% drop in the overall number of reports being made.
If the Regulation does not complete its passage by 3rd August 2024, we know with a high degree of certainty what will happen. The continued use of child protection tools to detect child sexual abuse online in communication services will be banned across the EU. These are the very services most used by offenders to exchange child sexual abuse material and groom children.
The reports generated in this way account for at least 80% of all reports of child sexual abuse received within the EU. In 2022 that amounted to 1.5 million individual reports. If the Regulation is not passed huge numbers of children will therefore be left exposed to or put in danger. This must not happen.
The reports are essential to find and prevent children from ongoing or imminent abuse, to prevent re-victimisation through the continued circulation of still pictures or videos, and to help law enforcement apprehend offenders. If the reports are lost it will have terrible consequences for children not just in every EU Member State but also far beyond.
• Prevention is a major focus of the Regulation
By requiring risk assessments and mitigation measures linked to child safety by design, a major part of the Regulation aims to prevent children from being harmed by sexual abuse, facilitate the detection of online grooming behaviours and reduce the risk of victimization.
Mandatory detection orders are a last resort, to be used only when the risk mitigation measures put in place are seen to be insufficient.
• Detection by the companies is essential to protect children
Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is evidence of a crime against children and, in the online world, companies are critical partners for detecting and reporting it to law enforcement.
It is well-established that children often do not disclose their abuse, ever, or not until they are adults, by which time the damage they have experienced in childhood may have become magnified and taken on complex forms. Children often do not realise they are being groomed or they do not fully appreciate the harms associated with sexualised images of themselves being published on the internet. Parents and carers, likewise, may not recognise the signs and symptoms of child sexual abuse, or they may themselves be the abusers. Thus, while expanding abuse report options for children and online safety education for parents and the public are welcome and necessary they are insufficient.
• Obligations to prevent and combat child sexual abuse are crucial
Because prevention, detection and reporting currently are voluntary, they are made with little or no legally grounded transparency. Moreover, too many companies have chosen not to act at all to protect children or there are significant inconsistencies in their approach.
The Regulation will herald a substantial uptick in online child protection because all relevant online businesses will be subject to a carefully defined, publicly stated legal regime.
• Mandatory detection will result in technological improvements by companies
Every item of software, every programme, can be improved iteratively. But the improvements come about through careful monitoring, feedback loops and through the mandatory transparency mechanisms which the Regulation will introduce. Improvements never come about if the programmes or tools are never deployed.
• Some of the available, effective tools have been in use for over a decade
PhotoDNA was the first perceptual hashing tool to be deployed at scale to identify child sexual abuse material. It became available in 2009 and has been extremely successful in identifying tens of millions of child sexual abuse images all over the world.
None of the apocalyptic visions painted during the debate on the Temporary Derogation, or in the debate on the Regulation, have materialised. Neither will they.
• Law Enforcement agencies welcome reports from companies
The police have not been flooded with false positives. On the contrary, law enforcement agencies have been highly appreciative of the way in which PhotoDNA and other tools have helped them in the vital task of protecting children.
• Rapid action is vital
Police agencies cannot always respond immediately to the reports they receive but, within a victim-centred holistic framework, the speediest possible identification and removal from the internet of CSAM is essential and the same is true in relation to acting swiftly to alert a child to the dangers of grooming. It can prevent untold harm being done to the child. Removing illegal material and preventing grooming complement and assist police action.
• Accuracy rates are exceptionally high and will continue to improve
PhotoDNA works with an accuracy rate estimated to be 1 in 50 billion. For the detection of new, previously unseen child sexual abuse material, the capabilities of new forms of AI are already at a threshold of 99.9% and will very likely improve even further, given the AI revolution we are experiencing.
In the new arrangements anticipated by the Regulation, the new European Centre will have a specific responsibility to ensure false positives are eliminated and are not passed on to law enforcement agencies. This is a vastly superior arrangement to the status quo, where those few companies who choose to implement automated detection measures are not obliged to ensure or improve the accuracy of reports.
• End-to-end encryption is not threatened in any way whatsoever
None of the child protection tools currently in use or anticipated have the ability to see, read, comprehend or identify anything other than CSAM or activity highly likely to be associated with child sexual abuse.
What the tools can do is identify patterns which indicate child abuse prior to the offending items or behaviour entering the encrypted tunnel. Such or similar tools have been used for many years in connection with end-to-end encrypted services in relation to other types of threats, for example to warn users that a potential link may have come from a scammer.
• We must not undermine the Rule of Law
To forbid the use of the child protection tools in association with apps which utilise end-to-end encryption would be the same as announcing the EU is happy to allow the creation of an enormous virtual space that is beyond the reach of the law, law enforcement agencies, and the courts.
Because of the scale of the challenge, forbidding the use of child protection tools in association with end-to-end encrypted environments therefore threatens the very idea of the Rule of Law. Offenders will step up their activity on encrypted apps in the belief they can act with impunity. And in the vast majority of cases they will be right. They can.
• It’s not all about the dark web
Offenders go where children go. Children are not on the dark web. For this reason, perpetrators have not all moved to the dark web in response to expanded child protection measures on the open web. It is definitely true that large volumes of CSAM are exchanged using dark web services, but a high proportion of these images originated on or through the open web or ended up on the open web. The choice is not between tackling the open web or the dark web. Both need to be addressed.
• Public opinion backs the Regulation very strongly
We all accept our personal belongings, even our bodies, being scanned or inspected on a mass basis at airports or at the entrance to sensitive buildings. We do this because we understand and accept the underlying social purpose for universal protection. In like manner, there is no doubt at all that the mass of public opinion in EU Member States supports the kind of measures outlined in the draft Regulation.
Signed as follows
Technologists
Hany Farid
Professor, University of Berkley
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Adam Hildreth
Founder and CEO, Crisp Thinking
Andrew Campling
419 Consulting
Asha Anderson
Co-Founder and CEO of DragonflAI
Bruce Ramsay
Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Cyacomb
Christian Berg
Co-Founder, NetClean and Paliscope
Christina Thorpe
Head of Discipline, School of Informatics and Cybersecurity, University of Dublin
Christopher Knibb
Director of Governance, The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Derek Allan
Chairman, Securus Software
Edward Dixon
Principal, RigrAI
Gretchen Peters
Executive Director, Alliance to Counter Crime Online
Ian Stevenson
Chair, Online Safety Technology Association
Juan Arraiza
European Anti-Crime Technology Development Association
Jim Fruchterman
Founder and CEO, Tech Matters
John Lundberg
Software Architect, Griffeye
Jos Flury
Project Executive
ZiuZ Visual Intelligence
Julie Cordua
CEO, THORN
Mark Baumgaretn
Software Developer
Martina Tschapka
Manager, T3K.AI
Matt Burns
CEO, Camera Forensics
Mike Short CBE
Chief Architect Satellite Applications Catapult
Formerly Chief Scientific Advisor Dept for International Trade, UK Government
Nenad Šutanovac
ICT Association of Slovenia
Nizar Touleimat
R&I Progamme Manager, Smart Digital Systems
Professor Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
University of Swansea Cyber Threats
Research Centre
Paul King
Interpol Specialists Group
Petros Daras
Research Director, Visual Computing Lab
Ray Genoe
Director, Centre for Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation
Seán Gaines
Director of International Operations, Vicomtech
Sharon Pursey
SafetoNet Ltd.
Stefanos Vrochidis
Information Technologies Institute, Thessaloniki
Steven Ormston
Polish Internal Security Platform
Susan McKeever
Head of Data Science and AI, TU Dublin
Tom Newton
VP Products, Smoothwall
Yiannis Laouris
Senior Scientist Cyprus Neuroscience-Technology Institute
Academics
Professor Adriano Schimmenti
Kore University of Enna
Professor Agnieszka Golczyńska-Grondas
University of Lodz
Ajda Šulc
University of Mariboru
Aleš Završnik
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ana Luísa Pinto Caetano Menezes Lopes
Member of Superior Council of The Bar Association, Lisbon
Andrej Motl
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ashley Woodfall
University of Bournemouth, UK
Barbara Brečko
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Professor Bent Meier Sørensen
Copenhagen Business School
Cary Bazalgette
University College London
Professor Catherine Blaya
University of the Côte d’Azur
Professor Catherine Maternowska
University of Edinburgh
Professor Charo Sádaba
University of Navarra
Professor Christine Trültzsch-Wijnen
University of Salzburg and the Charles University
Professor Cristina Ponte
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Professor Daryl Higgins
Australian Catholic University
Diana Pinto
FCH INOVA, Lisbon
Associate Professor Elena Martellozo
Middlesex University
Dunja Potočnik
Institute for Social Research, Zagreb
Professor Eduarda Ferreira
CICS NOVA, Lisbon
Assistant Professor Elien De Caulwé
University of Tilburg
Professor Elizabeth LeTourneau
Johns Hopkins University, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse
Professor Ellen Helsper
London School of Economics and Political Science
Professor Ernesto Caffo
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Professor Ethel Quayle
University of Edinburgh
Professor Félix Ortega-Mohedano
University of Salamanca
Professor Fernanda do Rosário Farinha Bonacho
Escola Superior de Comunicação Social (ESCS) / IP Lisboa
Professor Gary Ellis
University of Guelph-Humber
Associate Professor Gianna Cappello
University of Palermo
Associate Professor Giovanna Mascheroni
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Heidi Als Ringheim
Chair at Mediesundhed for børn og unge, Denmark
Professor Ilan Talmud
University of Haifa
Professor Iyabode Ogunniran
University of Lagos
Jeffrey DeMarcos
Associate Director, CATS, Middlesex University
Professor Jenny Pearce
University of Bedfordshire
Professor Adjunto João Torres
Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Setúbale
Professor Julia Davidson
University of East London
Assistant Professor Kateřina Klapilová
Charles University and National Institute of Mental Health, Prague
Assistant Professor Konstantinos Demestichas
University of Athens
Professor Leila Green
Edith Cowan University
Associate Professor Lidia Marôpo
Polytechnic University of Setubal
Professor Luisa Claudia Lopes Gante
University of Porto
Maialen Garmendia
Senior Lecturer, University of the Basque Country
Professor Margarida Gaspar de Matos
University of Lisbon
Maria João Leote de Carvalho
Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências Sociais da Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Associate Professor Michael Salter
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Minne De Boeck
University of Antwerp
Professor Nicholas Blagden
University of Derby
Professor Patricia Tzortzopoulos
University of Huddersfield
Simon Bailey
Anglia Ruskin University
Professor Sonia Livingstone
London School of Economics and Political Science
Sónia Rodrigues
Lusiada University of Porto
Assistant Professor Susana Batista
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Professor Teresa Castro
Universidade Lusófona
Thomas Heyman
Docent, Hogeschool Rotterdam Institute for Social Studies
Professor Veronika Kalmus
University of Tartu
NGOs and Advocates
Altin Hazizaj
Executive Director, CRCA/ECPAT Albania
Andrea Wagner
CEO, ECPAT Germany
Ajda Petek
Safer Internet Centre, Slovenia
Andrea Cox
Director, DigiQ, Slovenia
Andreia Manuela Ferreira de Carvalho
ProChild CoLAB, Portugal
Ann-Kristin Vervik
Executive Director, ECPAT Norway
Anna Karin Hildingson Boqvist
Secretary General, ECPAT Sweden
Ask Hesby Krogh
Director, Digitalt Ansvar, Denmark
Astrid Winkler
Executive Director, ECPAT Austria
Bjørn-Erik Ludvigsen
Police Superintendent, C3 Norway
Bob Cunningham
CEO, International Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Camille Cooper
CEO, Augusta Associates LLC
Carme Tello Casany
President, ECPAT Spain
Costas Yannopoulos
President, Smile of the Child, Greece
Cristiane Augusta da Silva Miranda
Co-Founder, Agarrados à Net – Cofounder, Portugal
Dagmar Kopčanová
Member, EUROCEF, Slovakia
Daniel Camara
Centre for AI, French Gendarmarie
Dawn Hawkins
CEO, National Center on Sexual Exploitation
Deborah Dennis
CEO, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation
Deepa Limbu Subba
Executive Director, ECPAT Luxembourg
Elizabeth Gosme
Director, COFACE Families Europe
Eva Bertelsen
Head of R&D, Danish National Organisation of Women’s Shelters
Fiona Jennings
Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Florence Koenderink
Founder, Family Based Solutions, Belgium
Francesco Zatelli
The Good Lobby
Francisca De Magalhães Barros
Justice Initiative, Portugal
Guillaume Landry
Executive Director, ECPAT International
Guillemette Vuillard
Director, ECPAT France
Hanna Markkula-Kivisilta
Secretary General, Save the Children Finland
Howard Taylor
Executive Director, Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children
Ieva Daniūnaitė
Children’s Support Centre, Lithuania
Ines Marinho
Founder, #NaoPartilhes, Portugal
Ioana Bauer
President, Movement Against Human Trafficking, Romania
Jasmin Abo Loha
General Secretary, ECPAT Italy
Jessica Airey
Europe Campaign Manager, The Brave Movement
Joanna Rubinstein
World Childhood Foundation
John Carr
Children’s Charities’ Coalition for Internet Safety
John Tanagho
Executive Director, IJM Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
Jorge Flores Fernández
Founder, Pantallas Amigas, Spain
Julia von Weiler
CEO, Innocence in Danger, Germany
Julie Verhaar
CEO, Terre des Hommes, Netherlands
Jutta Croll
Project Leader, Digital Opportunities Foundation, Germany
Kelly Schut
Director, Free a Girl, Netherlands
Lianna McDonald
Executive Director, Canadian Center for Child Protection
Lina Maria Saldarriaga
Aulas en Paz, Colombia
Lori Cohen
CEO, ECPAT USA
Lúcia Mitternayer Saraiva
IAC Technical / Legal adviser, Portugal
Lydia Konstantinova Zagorova
Director, ECPAT Bulgaria
Malle Roomeldi
Tartu Child Support Centre, Estonia
Márcia Gabriela Ferreira Lemos
Legal Adviser, Brazil
Maria João Faustino
Manager of Faz Delete, Portugal
Maria Herczog
Former Member of the UNCRC and former President of Eurochild
Marija Manojlovic
Safe Online Director, Safe Online Fund
Maud be Boer-Buquicchio
Former UN Special Rapporteur and Former Deputy General Secretary of the Council of Europe
Michelle DeLaune
President & CEO, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Mie Oehlenschlager
Founder, Tech and Childhood, Denmark
Mieke Schuurman
Director of Child Rights and Capacity Building, Eurochild
Miranda Freriks
Director, Abused Foundation, Netherlands
Mirjam Blaak
Executive Director, Defence for Children, ECPAT Netherlands
Narine Khachatryan
Executive Director, Safe Am, Armenia
Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen,
Executive Director, Suojellaan Lapsia, Protect Children ry
Patrick Krens
Executive Director, Child Helpline International
Peter Wanless
CEO, NSPCC
Rasmus Kjeldahl
Director, Children’s Welfare, Denmark
Rima Mufid Nashashibi
Founder and President, Global Hope 365
Ryan De Souza
Senior Advisor, Child Fund Alliance
Şahin Antakyalıoğlu
President, ECPAT Turkey
Stephanie Futter-Orel
Executive Manager, Women Against Violence Europe
Steve Miller
Global Child Protection Director, Save the Children
Susie Hargreave
CEO, Internet Watch Foundation
Szilvia Gyurkó
Child Rights Advisor, ECPAT Hungary
Ted Kloosterboer,
Director, Stichting Praat, Netherlands
Teresa K. Jauregui
Chief Legal Officer, National Child Protection Force, USA
Tito de Morais
Founder, Miudos SegurosNa.Net, Portugal
Ute Navidi
International Consultant on Children’s Rights
Valerie Ceccherini
Secretary General, Terre des Hommes International Federation
Victoria Green
CEO, Marie Collins Foundation
William Wiltse
President, Child Rescue Coalition
Wilson Lins de Oliveira Jr
Chairman, ECPAT Portugal