ROADMAP

Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work in order to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to make available any relevant information that they may have.

Title of the initiative

EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse

Lead DG – responsible unit

Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), Cybercrime Unit (D4)

Likely Type of initiative

Communication

Indicative Planning

Q3 2020

Additional Information

EU policy on the fight against child sexual abuse  

This Roadmap is provided for information purposes only and its content might change. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the Roadmap, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Context, Problem definition and Subsidiarity Check

Context

The political guidelines of the current Commission highlight that we cannot leave any stone unturned when it comes to protecting our citizens. This is particularly important in the case of our children. And it is critical to protect them from the heinous crime of sexual abuse, which can have life-long consequences on the well-being of victims.

The fight against child sexual abuse has been and remains a priority for the EU. To continue this effort and tackle the increasing challenges, the 2020 Commission Work Programme includes the adoption in Q3 2020 of an EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse under the policy objective of fostering Europe’s security.

The strategy also responds to the calls for concrete action that the Council of the EU made in its October 2019 Conclusions on combatting the sexual abuse of children, and those that the European Parliament, made in the November 2019 European Parliament Resolution on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Similar calls for action have been made at global level in multiple forums. These include the December 2019 summit of the WeProtect Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation Online, a global organisation co-founded by the European Commission that brings together 97 governments, 31 civil society organisations, 27 global technology companies and 8 regional organisations to fight these crimes. A series of recent articles in the media have exposed to the general public the depth and complexity of the problem and generated multiple other calls for action globally.

Problem the initiative aims to tackle

Child sexual abuse is a particularly serious crime that causes long-term physical, psychological and social harm. When the abuse is also recorded and shared online, the harm is even greater. The victims whose abuse was recorded as a child have to live with the knowledge that the images and videos of the crime scenes showing the worst moments of their lives are circulated and anyone, including friends or relatives, may see them.

The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in child sexual abuse instances detected in the EU: from 23,000 in 2010 to 830,000 in 2019. A similar increase has occurred globally: from 1 million cases in 2010, to 16 million in 2019, which included nearly 70 million images and videos. 1  

It is estimated that, at any given moment, across the world there are more than 750,000 predators online exchanging child sexual abuse material, streaming live abuse of children, extorting children to produce sexual material or grooming children for future sexual abuse. 2

Recent reports indicate that the region that hosts the highest amount of child sexual abuse material online globally is the EU.

In addition, transposition issues of EU legislation into national law remain. In 2019, the Commission opened infringement procedures against 23 Member States for possible non-conformities in the transposition of the Child Sexual Abuse Directive (2011/93). 3  

Basis for EU intervention (legal basis and subsidiarity check)

The applicable legal basis is the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in particular the area of freedom, security and justice (Title V of Part Three), and the objective of prevention and combatting serious crimes (including child sexual exploitation). This area is a shared competence between the EU and the Member States.

Child sexual abuse online and offline has a prominent cross-border dimension, as it is facilitated by the internet. The abusive images and videos uploaded to the web can be accessed globally. Offenders form online communities to exchange illegal material and information on potential ways to ensure impunity of their crimes and to request abuse of victims on demand. Recent cases also show the prevalence of transnational networks.

These crimes therefore cannot be tackled effectively by Member States acting alone. The EU intervention proposed aims to support Member States in fighting these crimes more efficiently and more effectively by strengthening cooperation at EU level through legislative and non-legislative action.

B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how

The overall objective of this initiative is to make the fight against child sexual abuse more effective in the EU.

The purpose of EU action in this area is first to support Members States to prevent the sexual abuse of any child. EU action also aims to support Member States to provide adequate assistance to victims, and ensure effective investigation and prosecution of such crimes.

The strategy will therefore announce possible initiatives to tackle these crimes in a comprehensive way. It will focus on increasing the prevention of child sexual abuse, on providing the adequate assistance to victims and on ensuring effective investigation and prosecution of such crimes. The initiatives will aim to catalyse action from private and public actors, both in the EU and globally.

The possible initiatives will cover the full range of available tools at EU level, both legislative and non-legislative, supported by the necessary funding.

C. Better regulation

Consultation of citizens and stakeholders

The possible initiatives that the strategy will announce build on years of previous targeted consultations with relevant stakeholders. These include:

·exchanges with all Member States since 2013 on completeness and conformity of their transposition of the Child Sexual Abuse Directive;

·six expert workshops with Member States between January 2018 and September 2019;

·regular communication with the Council of the EU, in particular before, during and after the adoption of its October 2019 Conclusions on combatting the sexual abuse of children;

·regular communication with the European Parliament, in particular before, during and after the adoption of its 2017 Report on the implementation of the Child Sexual Abuse Directive, and its 2019 Resolution on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

·frequent bilateral dialogue with industry, civil society organisations, experts and academia;

·structured dialogue with industry in the EU Internet Forum;

·constant communication with international partners (governments, industry, civil society and law enforcement) through the WeProtect Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation, and bilateral exchanges.

The targeted consultations will continue as needed during the drafting of the Communication. This roadmap is open for comments from stakeholders and members of the public. There will not be a public consultation on the Communication. Instead, any new initiative under the strategy that is expected to have significant impacts could be accompanied by an impact assessment and a public consultation as necessary, in accordance with the ‘Better regulation’ guidelines.

Evidence base and data collection

The Communication on an EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse will use the evidence base and data available through the recent and ongoing stakeholder consultations.

The Communication itself will not be subject to an impact assessment as it will only describe the possible initiatives and announce objectives and targets. Instead, any new initiative under the strategy that is expected to have significant impacts will undergo an impact assessment to gather additional evidence and data, as needed.

The strategy will explain how the different actions are to work together to achieve the expected outcome.