No time to lose: Closing Europe's blind spot on child online safety

Welcome back to EU Decoded, a podcast by the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

I am your host, Kitty Lyddon, and today we'll be addressing the recent developments in the regulation of child sexual abuse material online.

The numbers tell the clearest story.

Reports of sexual abuse online have gone from around 1 million in 2010 to over 20 million today.

In just the last year, cases involving AI-generated abuse material rose by more than 1,000%.

And over 60% of this is hosted by EU servers.

Now, since early April of this year, there has been a gap in the legislation surrounding child sexual abuse material.

The interim rules that were allowing platforms to detect and report these abuses expired before their permanent replacement was ready.

And last week, MEPs voted on an urgent procedure to try to close this gap.

So in this episode, we will look at the context and the outcome of this vote, and we will delve into the next steps, the issues surrounding AI-generated CSAM, child sexual abuse material, and why so much of it continues to be hosted within the EU.

Joining me today is EPP member, MEP Yoron Lenas, welcome, who is closely involved in shaping the EU's response to CSAM.

And we are also joined by Shalina Erporul, who is a survivor and child protection advocate.

Welcome to you both, and thank you for being here.

So I'd like to give our listeners a little bit of context before we address last week's vote.

The interim rules expired on 4th of April.

Welcome back to EU Decoded, a podcast by the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

I am your host, Kitty Lyddon, and today we'll be addressing the recent developments in the regulation of child sexual abuse material online.

The numbers tell the clearest story.

Reports of sexual abuse online have gone from around 1 million in 2010 to over 20 million today.

In just the last year, cases involving AI-generated abuse material rose by more than 1,000%.

And over 60% of this is hosted by EU servers.

Now, since early April of this year, there has been a gap in the legislation surrounding child sexual abuse material.

The interim rules that were allowing platforms to detect and report these abuses expired before their permanent replacement was ready.

And last week, MEPs voted on an urgent procedure to try to close this gap.

So in this episode, we will look at the context and the outcome of this vote, and we will delve into the next steps, the issues surrounding AI-generated CSAM, child sexual abuse material, and why so much of it continues to be hosted within the EU.

Joining me today is EPP member, MEP Yoron Lenas, welcome, who is closely involved in shaping the EU's response to CSAM.

And we are also joined by Shalina Erporul, who is a survivor and child protection advocate.

Welcome to you both, and thank you for being here.

So I'd like to give our listeners a little bit of context before we address last week's vote.

The interim rules expired on 4th of April.