COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse
Date: 2022-05-11
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: Internet, child, child pornography, child protection, data protection, fight against crime, judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU, paedophilia, protection of privacy, sexual violence

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 11.5.2022  SWD(2022) 210 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT  Accompanying the document Proposal  for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse {COM(2022) 209 final} - {SEC(2022) 209 final} - {SWD(2022) 209 final}  
 
 
Executive Summary Sheet 
Impact assessment for a proposal 
laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse 

A. Need for action 
What is the problem and why is it a problem at EU level?  
Child sexual abuse, online and offline, is a particularly serious crime that  affects  public security in the EU 
and  infringes  children’s  fundamental  rights.  It  has  wide-ranging  and  serious  life-long  consequences  for 
victims.  Some  child  sexual  abuse  crimes  are  not  adequately  addressed  in  the  EU  due  to  challenges  in  their 
detection, reporting and action by relevant service providers, as well as insufficient prevention and assistance to 
victims. Diverging national  responses negatively affect the  Internal  Market. Children are exposed to increasing 
risks and harms online, and child sexual abuse materials are spreading online in growing quantities.  The impact 
assessment identifies three main drivers for this problem: 
1.  While  some  service  providers  take  voluntary  action  to  detect  online  child  sexual  abuse,  this  has  proven 

insufficient. 

2.  Inefficiencies in public-private cooperation between online service providers, civil society organisations 
and public authorities hamper an effective fight against child sexual abuse. In particular, Member States are 
increasingly  taking  steps  at  national  level  to  impose  specific  obligations  for  this  manifestly  illegal  content, 
creating fragmentation in the Internal Market; 

3.  Member States’ efforts to prevent child sexual abuse and to assist victims are limited, divergent, lack 

coordination and are of unclear effectiveness. 

What should be achieved?  
The general objective is to improve the functioning of the Internal Market by introducing clear, uniform and 
balanced EU rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, notably through a clarification of the role and 
responsibilities of online service providers. The specific objectives aim to:  
1.  ensure  the  effective  detection,  removal  and  reporting  of  online  child  sexual  abuse  where  they  are 

2. 

currently missing;  
improve  legal  certainty,  transparency  and  accountability  and  ensure  protection  of  fundamental 
rights; and 

3.  reduce the proliferation and effects of child sexual abuse through harmonisation of rules and increased 

coordination of efforts. 

What is the value added of action at the EU level (subsidiarity)?  
Given  the  cross-border  and  cross-sectorial  nature  of  the  fight  against  child  sexual  abuse  and  current 
fragmentation, a satisfactory improvement  cannot be achieved by Member States acting alone or in an 
uncoordinated  way.  In  addition, 
facilitate  Member  States’  efforts,  EU  action  would  reduce 
compliance/operational  costs  in  particular  for  online  service  providers,  improving  the  functioning  of  the 
internal  market  by  reducing  fragmentation.  EU  action  would  help  extend  national  best  practices  and 
lessons learned across the EU, reduce dependence on and facilitate cooperation with third countries. 

to 

B. Solutions 

What are the various options to achieve the objectives? Is there a preferred option?   
Option A: Practical measures to enhance prevention, detection, reporting and removal, and assistance to 

victims, and establishing an EU Centre on prevention and assistance to victims. 

Option B: Option A + legislation 1) specifying the conditions for voluntary detection, 2) requiring mandatory 

reporting and removal of online child sexual abuse, and 3) expanding the EU Centre to also support 
detection, reporting and removal. 

Option C: Option B + mandatory detection of known child sexual abuse material. 
Option D: Option C + mandatory detection of new child sexual abuse material.  
Option E: Option D + mandatory detection of grooming. This is the preferred option. 

What are different stakeholders' views? Who supports which option?  
Stakeholders agreed in general on the importance to step up efforts in the fight against child sexual abuse, 
online  and  offline,  without  duplicating  or  unnecessarily  disrupting  ongoing  efforts,  and  welcomed  the 
possible  EU  centre.  Public  authorities  and  child  rights  NGOs  supported  obligations  to  detect,  report 
and  remove  child  sexual  abuse  online,  while  service  providers  favoured  a  voluntary  approach  that 
enabled  current  efforts  and  innovation.  Privacy  rights  NGOs  stressed  the  importance  of  not  weakening 
encryption and the need to respect the prohibition of general monitoring.     

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C. Impacts of the preferred option 
What are the benefits of the preferred option (if any, otherwise of main ones)?  
The  initiative  is  expected  to  reduce  fragmentation  in  the  Single  Market  and  improve  legal  certainty, 
improve  the  identification,  protection  and  support  of  victims  of  child  sexual  abuse,  and  ensure 
effective prevention and facilitate investigations.  
By combatting and preventing child sexual abuse, the protection of the rights of the child would be improved 
as the proliferation and effects of child sexual abuse would decrease, including the economic burden due 
to health, employment and other direct costs, as well as the loss of productivity.  

What are the costs of the preferred option (if any, otherwise of main ones)?  
The main costs in the preferred option are those of: 

 

service providers, to comply with the obligations to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse 
online (estimated at one-off costs of EUR 1.6 billion and annual costs of EUR 1.5 billion); 

  public authorities, to deal with the increase in reports (estimated at one-off costs of EUR 5.4m 

and annual costs of EUR 825.6m); 
the EU centre (estimated at one-off costs of EUR 5m and annual costs of EUR 25.7m).  

 

What are the impacts on SMEs and competitiveness?  
The most significant impacts on SMEs arise from the obligation to detect, report and remove child sexual 
abuse  online  found  in  their  services.  The  economic  impact  will  be  mitigated  by  the  free  access  to 
technology to detect, report and remove, which the EU  centre will  facilitate.  Uniform rules related to the 
fight  against  child  sexual  abuse  will  help  SMEs  operate  across  the  Single  Market,  helping  scale-ups  and 
innovators, while facilitating a safer online environment for children. 

Will there be significant impacts on national budgets and administrations?  
The  number  of  reports  of  child  sexual  abuse  is  expected  to  increase  as  a  result  of  the  initiative.  This  will 
generate costs for public authorities, notably on investigations.  
On the other hand, the EU centre will help public authorities in their prioritisation efforts in investigations 
through an increased quality of reports and enable a more efficient use of resources and expertise available in 
the  EU,  also  on  prevention  and  assistance  to  victims.  In  these  areas,  the  centre  will  facilitate  coordination 
among Member States, which will avoid duplication of efforts.   

Will there be other significant impacts?  
The preferred option seeks to protect all fundamental rights at stake, including the fundamental rights to 
human dignity and to the integrity of the person, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as 
the  rights  of  the  child  (including  the  children’s  rights  to  respect  for  private  and  family  life  and  to 
protection  of  personal  data).  At  the  same  time,  the  preferred  option  would  have  an  impact  on  the 
fundamental  rights  of  all  users  of  the  services  concerned,  in  particular  the  rights  to  respect  for  privacy 
(including of communications, as part of the broader right to respect for private and family life), to protection 
of  personal  data  and  to  freedom  of  expression  and  information.  The  legislation  should  include 
safeguards  that  take  into  account  the  varying  level  of  intrusiveness  depending  on  the  nature  of  the  online 
services, to achieve a fair balance of the various fundamental rights and the ability to offer a more adequate 
response to child sexual abuse in light of both the current and the evolving risks, in particular those emerging 
in a highly dynamic digital environment. 

Proportionality?  
The  legislation  pursues  the  legitimate  purpose  of  more  effectively  tackling  child  sexual  abuse  online, 
including  better  protection  of  child  victims  through  more  effective  detection,  reporting  and  removal,  and 
includes  the  necessary  conditions  and  safeguards.  The  preferred  option  does  not  go  beyond  what  is 
necessary to achieve the general and specific objectives identified for EU intervention. In particular, it ensures 
respect for the prohibition of general monitoring and a fair balance between the various rights at stake.  

D. Follow up 

When will the policy be reviewed?  
The  outcome  of  the  implementation  of  the  preferred  option  will  be  monitored  through  performance 
indicators  that  public  authorities,  service  providers  and  the  EU  centre  would  collect.  Based  on  these 
indicators, the Commission will prepare an implementation report every 5 years, and an evaluation every 
5 years.  

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