With the expiry of the temporary exemption for voluntary chat control on 3 April 2026, the European Union faces a legal gap in the voluntary detection of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. Following the failure of the EU Council and the European Parliament to agree on an extension of the exemption, pressure is mounting to find a swift and long-term solution for voluntary proactive measures by service providers within the framework of the trilogue negotiations on the CSAM Regulation.
Alexandra Koch-Skiba, Head of the eco Complaints Office, comments:
“The expiry of the current legal basis for voluntary measures to detect child sexual abuse material creates legal and practical uncertainty that is in the interests of neither child protection nor the companies involved.
From the perspective of the Internet industry, on thing is clear: protecting children in the digital space requires effective, practical and legally compliant tools. Voluntary measures by providers have made an important contribution in this regard for years and should continue to be possible on a stable legal basis.
At the same time, the current development confirms that interference with private communications is a highly sensitive area, and that there continues to be no viable majority in favour of indiscriminate and blanket interference with private communications. A mandatory or de facto search obligation would call into question fundamental principles such as proportionality, the prohibition of general surveillance, and the integrity of end-to-end encryption.
We therefore urge that – despite the failure to extend the temporary exemption for voluntary search measures – the trilogue negotiations on the CSAM Regulation definitively abandon any search obligations for all providers of hosting services or interpersonal communications services.
Instead of regulatory approaches that are technically unworkable or that create new security risks, what is needed is a coherent framework that strengthens existing successful structures: these include, in particular, close cooperation with complaints offices, law enforcement agencies and international networks, as well as the consistent removal of illegal content at the source.
EU legislators now face the task of creating legal certainty for voluntary measures in the short term, whilst ensuring a balanced, fundamental-rights-compliant and effective framework in the further legislative processes. Child protection and the protection of secure digital communication must not be played off against each other.”
About the eco Complaints Office
The eco Complaints Office has been active since 1996 and is an integral part of the system of regulated self-regulation in Germany. It enables Internet users to report content that endangers young people and criminal content free of charge and anonymously, and works closely with providers, public authorities and international partners.
