COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT […] Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child sexual abuse material, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (recast)
Date: 2024-02-06
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: child, child pornography, child protection, children's rights, fight against crime, help for victims, paedophilia, penalty, prostitution, sexual violence

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Strasbourg, 6.2.2024  SWD(2024) 34 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT  […] Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child sexual abuse material, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (recast) {COM(2024) 60 final} - {SEC(2024) 57 final} - {SWD(2024) 32 final} - {SWD(2024) 33 final}  
 
 
Impact  assessment  accompanying  the  proposal  for  a  DIRECTIVE  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  PARLIAMENT  AND  OF 
THE  COUNCIL  amending  Directive  2011/93/EU  on  combating  the  sexual  abuse  and  sexual  exploitation  of 
children and child sexual abuse material and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA 

Executive Summary  

A. Need for action 

Why? What is the problem?  
Child sexual abuse affects  public security in the EU and infringes children’s fundamental rights  under 
the  Charter.  It  is  a  public  health  problem  that  contributes  to  a  global  burden  through  increased  risk  of 
serious mental and physical health problems across the human lifespan, and imposes an economic burden on 
individuals,  families  and  societies.  There  is  significant  under-reporting  given  the  inability  of  many  victims  to 
come  forward,  due  to  their  young  age  and  the  circumstances  of  the  abuse,  which  often  occurs  in  family  or 
other  trusted  settings.  For  live  distant  child  sexual  abuse,  possibilities  for  investigating  and  prosecuting 
offences remain very limited even where crimes are reported or otherwise detected. The criminal law response 
to child sexual abuse therefore needs to be further strengthened to address existing gaps that have persisted 
or have arisen since the adoption of the original EU framework in 2011. The problem can be summarised as 
follows. 
1.  The increased online presence of children and the latest technological developments, such as pervasive 
livestreaming  and  virtual  worlds,  create  new  opportunities  for  abuse  because  children  are  often 
approached online or their sexual abuse is livestreamed as a service to order. 

2.  The different legal frameworks in place in Member States concerning investigation and prosecution do 
not provide for an effective fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation, particularly  given the online 
dimension.  This  creates  challenges  for  law  enforcement  due  to  the  difficulties  in  identifying  perpetrators 
and in gathering evidence. 

In practice, the combination of the above two issues leads to pervasive impunity for serious crimes that have a 
lifelong impact on child victims. 
3.  Efforts  to  prevent  child  sexual  abuse  and  to  assist  victims  are  still  limited  in  nature,  of  unclear 

effectiveness, and lack coordination among relevant stakeholders. 

What is this initiative expected to achieve?  
In addition to regulating the role of online service providers, which the Commission addressed in its May 2022 
proposal for a regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (COM(2022) 209), there 
is a need to supplement the existing criminal law framework to ensure its effectiveness. The general objective 
is to improve identification, protection and support of victims of child sexual abuse, ensure effective 
prevention, and  facilitate investigations. The specific  objectives are: (1) to ensure the criminalisation of 
all forms of  online child sexual abuse and exploitation; (2) to ensure that national rules on investigation and 
prosecution  provide  for  effective  action  against  child  sexual  abuse  and  exploitation;  and  (3)  to  improve 
prevention, and protection, support and assistance to victims, require Member States to systematically collect 
statistics on child sexual abuse, and ensure increased coordination among Member States and, at the national 
level, among all parties involved. The proposal also updates the language of the existing framework, replacing 
all  references  to  ‘child  pornography’  with  ‘child  sexual  abuse  material’  to  reflect  internationally  agreed 
standards to avoid an inadvertent legitimising effect of the association with legal adult pornography. 

What is the value added of action at the EU level (subsidiarity)?  
Gaps in the existing framework have largely emerged due to the online dimension, which is inherently cross-
border in nature, in particular when dealing with livestreaming or online grooming. In the absence of common 
rules,  Member  States  would  face  hurdles  in  effectively:  (i)  preventing  the  commission  of  child  sexual  abuse 
offences  in  their  territory;  (ii)  investigating  and  prosecuting  child  sexual  abuse  crimes  with  a  cross-border 
dimension; and (iii) identifying and providing assistance to victims. 

 
 
 
 
 
B. Solutions 

What are the various options to achieve the objectives? Is there a preferred option or not? If not, 
why?  
Option A: Targeted legislative adjustments to clarify ambiguities of the current framework, ensure consistency 

with new instruments, and improve the quantity and quality of available information. 
Option B: Option A plus legislative amendments modifying definitions of crimes to take into account current 

and expected technological developments. 

Option C: Option B plus legislative amendments to ensure more effective prevention, assistance to victims 

and investigation, and prosecution, taking into account the cross-border dimension of the 
phenomenon. This is the preferred option. 

What are the various stakeholder views? Who supports which option?  
Stakeholders have called on the Commission to review the framework. They confirmed that children were seen 
to be affected by gaps in criminalisation in relation to emerging trends enabled or facilitated by technological 
development and the increased online presence of both children and predators, especially since the COVID-19 
pandemic. In particular, the challenges in investigating and prosecuting such offences and in identifying victims 
were identified as needing a more effective approach. Stakeholders also pointed to the need to better account 
for  the  specificities  of  child  sexual  abuse  and  exploitation  offences,  including  the  challenges  encountered  by 
victims  in  reporting,  the  long  period  that  can  elapse  between  the  occurrence  of  the  offence  and  the  victim’s 
ability to speak about it, the need for targeted prevention and victim assistance, and the difficulties caused by 
phenomena  such  as  that  of  travelling  sex  offenders.  In  general,  stakeholders  were  supportive  of  a  targeted 
update  of  the  framework,  particularly  with  a  view  to  addressing  the  phenomenon  of  live  distant  child  sexual 
abuse.  

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 bring improvements in  identification,  protection and support of victims of 
child  sexual  abuse,  and  would  both  ensure  more  effective  prevention  and  facilitate  investigations.  It 
would  reduce  the  pervasive  impunity  of  live  distant  child  sexual  abuse  by  making  available  more  effective 
investigative  tools  and  by  adapting  the  criminal  law  framework.  This  is  to  ensure  that  ordering  the  sexual 
abuse  of  a  child,  to  be  livestreamed  for  the  offender’s  private  viewing,  is  criminalised  independently  of  the 
sexual abuse itself, and that attempts to solicit a child into sexual abuse via online channels such as chats or 
gaming platforms are similarly criminalised. The initiative would also make it possible, for an extended period 
of  time  to  take  into  account  the  lasting  fear  and  trauma  that  often  hinders  reporting,  for  survivors  to  file 
complaints and to claim compensation for damages, both of which would have a positive impact on survivors’ 
ability  to  assert  their  rights  and  recover  their  well-being.  The  creation  of  national  authorities  to  coordinate 
efforts  at  national  level  would  provide  for  a  comprehensive  national  approach  to  the  phenomenon  of  child 
sexual abuse, which is as much a public health problem as it is a criminal justice one. Existing structures of this 
kind in some Member States have shown the benefits for awareness raising, prevention, giving voice to victims 
and survivors, and supporting them more effectively. 

What are the costs of the preferred option (if any, otherwise of main ones)?  
The costs mainly fall on Member State administrations. The preferred option has a limited burden on Member 
States, which is offset by the positive impact of the measures on the prevention and fight against trafficking, 
and on protection of the victims. The preferred option mostly consists in strengthening and expanding existing 
provisions rather than creating new obligations.  Some Member States have already put in place measures to 
expand the scope of criminal laws in line with the new proposals, and made available additional investigative 
measures, which will reduce the regulatory burden on them. The requirement to create a national  authority to 
coordinate  would  also  create  a  limited  regulatory  and  administrative  burden  on  Member  States  that  do  not 
already have a system in place. 
What are the impacts on SMEs and competitiveness?  
There are no direct or indirect impacts on SMEs and competitiveness. 

Will there be significant impacts on national budgets and administrations?  
There will be four main types of impact on national budgets and administrations, all of which are expected to 
be limited in scope. Firstly, the administration will need to invest resources to make the necessary changes to 
the national legislative framework. Secondly, making more investigative measures available should increase the 
number of cases that can be investigated, and hence the required resources, but on the other hand this would 
likely also increase the efficiency and effectiveness of investigations, hence also lowering  the overall workload 

 
 
 
of law enforcement. Thirdly, the creation and maintenance of national authorities to coordinate efforts against 
child sexual abuse will have an ongoing impact on national budgets in Member States where such functions do 
not yet exist. Finally, the proposed collection of statistics may go beyond what is already available at national 
level but it is in line with what has already been adopted  under Regulation (EU) 2021/1232 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 14 July 2021 on a temporary derogation from certain provisions of Directive 
2002/58/EC  as  regards  the  use  of  technologies  by  providers  of  number-independent  interpersonal 
communications  services  for  the  processing  of  personal  and  other  data  for  the  purpose  of  combating  online 
child sexual abuse1. 
Will there be other significant impacts?  
A core impact of the preferred option is related to safeguarding the well-being and rights of children online and 
offline, and those of survivors of child sexual abuse. In addition, the proposal to extend the right of victims to 
file charges and to enable them to claim damages would be expected to have a significant positive impact on 
the ability of victims and survivors to assert their rights.  

Proportionality?  
The changes to the Directive under this proposal are limited and targeted, aimed at effectively addressing the 
key shortcomings identified in the implementation and evaluation of that Directive. Any further administrative 
burden  that  might  arise  from  this  update  is  considered  proportionate  in  view  of  the  long-term  benefits, 
including cost benefits, that are linked to prevention and early detection of these types of offence for victims 
and  society  at  large.  Therefore,  the  proposal  does  not  go  beyond  what  is  necessary  in  order  to  achieve  the 
stated objectives. 

D. Follow-up 

When will the policy be reviewed?  
The concrete impacts of the preferred option, i.e. the actual progress in the fight against  child sexual abuse 
offline and online, will be monitored and evaluated against the three specific objectives. The proposal includes 
measures to gather relevant statistics in order to be able to accurately assess these impacts. On this basis, the 
Commission will provide regular implementation reports every 5 years, which will be accompanied by proposals 
for amendment as needed. 

1 OJ L 274, 30.7.2021, p. 41-51.