A Reality Check The European Commission’s Proposed Regulation on Combatting child sexual
Organised by LSTS, VUB (BE)
Moderator Desara Dushi, LSTS, VUB (BE)
Speakers Carmela Troncoso, EPFL (CH); Michael Tunks, Internet Watch Foundation (UK); Emily Slifer, Thorn (US); Mark Leiser, Vrije Universiteit Amster- dam (NL)
The Proposed Regulation on Combatting Child Sex- ual Abuse focuses on the role that online service providers should have to protect children from online sexual abuse, by introducing mandatory detection measures for not only known child sex- ual abuse material (CSAM), but also new CSAM and grooming. While there is wide agreement on the need to swiftly and effectively protect children online, concerns have been raised that mandato- ry detection measures, as imposed under the cur- rent form of the proposed regulation, pose a threat to fundamental rights, particularly to the rights to data protection, respect of private life and confiden- tiality of communication. The goal of this panel is not to criticize the proposed regulation by elevat- ing privacy to an absolute right but rather to take a pragmatic approach, well-informed by real-world affordances of currently available automation tools for child protection, assessing the feasibility and implications of integrating such technologies into the envisioned legal framework.
- Can this proposal solve the problem of online CSAM, or at least significantly mitigate it, without causing other (bigger) problems?
- What are the affordances and limitations of cur- rently available technologies for child protection? Will the emerging threat of AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material alter these affordances?
- Can child sexual abuse detection software comply with GDPR?
- How can we effectively safeguard children online without unduly compromising other fundamental rights?
