EU states back away from forcing Big Tech to detect and remove child pornography

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union member states have agreed a common position on draft online child protection legislation without forcing global tech companies to identify and remove online child sexual abuse.

The position, announced on Wednesday by the European Council, represents a victory for U.S. companies such as Alphabet's Google, Meta and others as well as for anti-surveillance activists who had argued the draft rules threaten privacy. It is part of a wider pushback against regulation led by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The EU position is less prescriptive than a 2023 position by the European Parliament that would have required messaging services, app stores and internet access providers to report and remove known and new images and videos, as well as cases of grooming.

The legislation was drawn up in 2022 to strengthen coordination across the 27 countries of the European Union to prevent online abuse that increasingly crosses borders.

EU countries will now have to thrash out details of the draft legislation with EU lawmakers before it can become law.

Wednesday's Council statement said online providers would have to assess the risk of their services being used to disseminate child sexual abuse material or solicit children for sexual abuse and take preventative measures. But it left enforcement up to national governments.

"Member states will designate national authorities ... responsible for assessing these risk assessments and mitigating measures, with the possibility of obliging providers to carry out mitigating measures. In the event of non-compliance, providers could be subject to penalty payments," it said.

The law will also allow companies to voluntarily check content shared on their platforms for child sexual abuse beyond April next year, when the current exemption from online privacy rules expires.

It will establish an EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse to help countries comply and provide assistance for victims.

"Every year, millions of files are shared that depict the sexual abuse of children. And behind every single image and video, there is a child who has been subjected to the most horrific and terrible abuse. This is completely unacceptable," said Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark's justice minister, welcoming the fact that EU member states had agreed a common position - a required step in advancing the new law.

Also on Wednesday, the European Parliament called on the European Union to set minimum ages for children to access social media, to combat a rise in mental health problems among adolescents from excessive exposure. The call is non-binding.

Australia is poised to institute the world's first social media ban for children younger than 16. Denmark and Malaysia also plan bans.

(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi and Foo Yun Chee, editing by Philippa Fletcher)