Initiative of the Republic of Austria with a view to adopting a Council Decision to combat child pornography on the Internet
Date: 1999-12-16
Institutions: Austria
Subjects: Austria, child protection, information network, pornography, sexual violence, transmission network

C 362/8

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

16.12.1999

Initiative of the Republic of Austria with a view to adopting a Council Decision to combat child
pornography on the Internet

(1999/C 362/06)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

HAVING REGARD TO the Treaty on European Union, and in
particular Article 34(2)(c) thereof,

HAVING REGARD TO the opinion of the European Parliament,

HAVING REGARD TO the initiative of the Republic of Austria,

TAKING ACCOUNT OF the resolution adopted by the European
Parliament on 19 September 1996 on minors who are victims
of violence,

BEARING IN MIND the Declaration and Agenda for Action,
unanimously accepted by delegates at
the World Congress
against commercial sexual exploitation of children, held in
Stockholm in August 1996, and the conclusions and recom-
mendations of the European follow-up conference to the World
Congress, held in Strasbourg in April 1998,

BEARING IN MIND the European Convention on Human Rights,
and in particular Article 10(2) thereof,

RECALLING Article 34 of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child of 20 November 1989,

BEARING IN MIND the resolution of the Council and of the
the Member States,
the Governments of
Representatives of
meeting within the Council of 17 February 1997 on illegal
and harmful content on the Internet (1),

BEARING IN MIND Joint Action 97/154/JHA of 24 February
1997 adopted by the Council concerning action to combat
trafficking in human beings
exploitation of
children (2),

and sexual

BEARING IN MIND the Council Decision of 3 December 1998
supplementing the definition of the form of crime (cid:145)traffic in
human beings(cid:146) in the Annex to the Europol Convention (3), and
having regard to the Declaration of 3 December 1998
approved by the Council,

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the recommendation adopted by the
Council on 24 September 1998 on the development of the
competitiveness of the European audiovisual and information
services industry by promoting national frameworks aimed at
achieving a comparable and effective level of protection of
minors and human dignity (4),

RECALLING the action plan adopted by the Council on 28 April
1997 to combat organised crime (5),
approved by the
Amsterdam European Council in June 1997, and the 10 prin-
ciples of the G8 regarding high-tech crime taken note of by the
Council at its meeting on 19 March 1998 as well as the recom-
mendation of the European Council in Vienna on 11 and 12
December 1998 to ensure an effective follow-up to the
initiatives for the protection of children at Eropean and inter-
national level, especially in the area of child pornography in
the Internet,

the
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT Decision No 276/1999/EC of
European Parliament and the Council of 25 January 1999
regarding the adoption of a multiannual action plan on
promoting safe use of the Internet by combating messages of
illicit and harmful content in global networks (6),

RECALLING Common Position 1999/364/JHA of 27 May 1999
on negotiations relating to the Draft Convention of Cyber
Crime held in the Council of Europe on 27 May 1999 (7),
adopted by the Council on the basis of Article 34 of
the
Treaty on European Union,

WHEREAS the traffic in human beings and the sexual exploi-
tation of children constitue a serious infringement of funda-
mental human rights and in particular of human dignity,

AWARE of the fact that the sexual abuse of children and the
production, processing, possession and distribution of child
pornography material may constitute an important form of
international organised crime, the extent of which within the
European Union gives cause for ever increasing concern,

CONVINCED that a high value must be placed on the physical
and emotional
integrity of children and the protection of
victims of sexual crimes,

AWARE OF THE NEED for further measures by the Union for
promoting the safe use of the Internet,

IN ORDER TO prevent and combat the sexual abuse of children
and in particular the production, processing, distribution and
possession of child pornography material through the Internet,

(1) OJ C 70, 6.3.1997, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 63, 4.3.1997, p. 2.
(3) OJ C 26, 30.1.1999, p. 21.
(4) OJ L 270, 7.10.1998, p. 48.

(5) OJ C 251, 15.8.1997, p. 1.
(6) OJ L 33, 6.2.1999, p. 1.
(7) OJ L 142, 5.6.1999, p. 1.

16.12.1999

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 362/9

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

1.
In order to intensify measures to prevent and combat the
production, processing, distribution and possession of child
pornography material and to promote the effective investi-
gation and prosecution of offences in this area, Member
States will take the necessary measures to encourage Internet
users to inform law enforcement authorities, either directly or
indirectly, on suspected distribution of child pornography
material on the Internet,
if they come across such material.
Internet users shall be made aware of ways to make contact
with law enforcement authorities or entities which have
privileged links with law enforcement authorities, to enable
such authorities
task of preventing and
their
to fulfil
combating child pornography on the Internet.

effective

the adminis-
2. Where necessary, and taking account of
the
trative structure of each Member State, measures for
investigation and prosecution of
promotion of
offences in this area could be the setting up of specialised
units wihtin law enforcement authorities with the necessary
expertise and resources
swiftly with
information on suspected production, processing, distribution
and possession of child pornography.

to be able to deal

3. Member States shall ensure that
the law enforcement
authorities act swiftly when they have received information
on
and
processing,
possession of child pornography material.

distribution

production,

suspected

Article 2

1. Member States shall ensure the widest possible coop-
eration to facilitate an effective investigation and prosecution
of offences concerning child pornography on the Internet in
accordance with existing arrangements and agreements.

To ensure a timely and effective response to these
2.
offences, Member States will communicate already established
points of contact, which are st up on a 24-hour basis and
consist of knowledgeable personnel, as well as the specialised
units, which are mentioned in Article 1(2) and which can be
information and for further contacts
used for exchange of
between Member States. Points of contact, which Member
States have already set up for other duties can also be used
for these purposes. Equally, existing channels for communi-
cation, such as Europol and Interpol shall be used.

3. Member States shall ensure that Europol, within the limits
of
suspected cases of child
pornography.

its mandate,

informed of

is

authorities

child
specialising
competent
pornography on the Internet with a view to promoting
general
information exchanges, analysis of the situation and
the coordination of measures in criminal tactics.

combating

in

5.
Each Member State shall notify the General Secretariat of
the Council of its organisational unit or units acting as points
of contact under paragraph 2. The General Secretariat shall
inform all other Member States of these points of contact.

Article 3

Member States shall engage in constructive dialogue with
industry and examine appropriate measures, of a voluntary
or a legally binding nature, to eliminate child pornography
on the Internet. In particular, Member States shall exchange
experiences on the effectiveness of any measures they have
taken to eliminate child pornography on the Internet. In this
context,
they shall examine the following measures, which
would place Internet providers under a duty:

(a) to advise the comptent entities mentioned in Article 1(1) or
the units mentioned in Article 1(2) of child pornography
material of which they have been informed or of which
they are aware and which is distributed through them;

(b) to withdraw from circulation child pornography material of
which they have been informed or of which they are aware
and which is distributed through them unless otherwise
specified by the competent authorities;

data, where

(c) in accordance with the Council Resolution of 17 January
1995 on the lawful interception of telecommunications (1)
to retain traffic-related
and
technically feasible (cid:151) in particular for criminal prosecution
purposes in cases of suspected sexual abuse of children,
production,
child
and
pornography (cid:151) for such time as may be specified under
the applicable national law, to allow the data to be made
available for inspection by the criminal prosecution auth-
orities in accordance with the applicable rules of procedure;

distribution

processing

applicable

of

(d) to set up their own control systems for combating the
production, processing, distribution and possession of
child pornography material.

Article 4

Member States shall regularly verify whether technological
developments require,
in order to maintain the efficiency of
the fight against child pornography on the Internet, changes
to criminal procedural law, while respecting the fundamental
principles thereof and, where necessary, shall make appropriate
proposals to their competent authorities to that end.

4. Member States, in appropriate cooperation with Europol,
shall examine the possibility of organising regular meetings of

(1) OJ C 329, 4.11.1996, p. 1.

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Official Journal of the European Communities

16.12.1999

Article 5

(b) on-the-spot evaluation shall be made so as

to avoid

cumbersome procedures.

3.
The assessment specified in Title IV B of Joint Action
97/154/JHA shall not be carried out. It shall be replaced by
the evaluation referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article.

On the basis of the information received in the course of
4.
the evaluation pursuant
the Council shall
to paragraph 2,
examine any further measure it may with to take in order to
make the combating of child pornography and sexual exploi-
tation of children more effective.

Article 7

The measures contained in this Decision shall be implemented
by the Member States at the latest on 31 December 2000.

Done at . . .

For the Council

The President

. . .

Member States shall cooperate, in contact with the industry, by
sharing their experiences and encouraging, as far as possible,
the production of filters and other technical means to prevent
the distribution of child pornography material and to make
possible the detection thereof.

Article 6

1.
The Council shall examine the extent to which Member
States have fulfilled their obligations pursuant to Joint Action
97/154/JHA and the extent to which the measures proposed in
this Decision have proved effective.

2.
The examination referred to in paragraph 1 may be
carried out under Joint Action 97/827/JHA adopted by the
Council on 5 December 1997 establishing a mechanism for
evaluating the application and implementation at national
level of
against
organised crime (1), subject to the following:

international undertakings

in the

fight

(a) evaluation teams shall consist of who experts;

(1) OJ L 344, 15.12.1997, p. 7.