EU to Allow Voluntary Scanning for Child Abuse Material

European Union member states have agreed on new temporary rules that will once again allow communications service providers to voluntarily search for child sexual abuse material in private messages, according to the DPA news agency.

The measure follows a previous exemption from data protection rules that expired in April. The new regulation will remain in effect until April 2028, while the EU works on a permanent solution.

Automatic scanning will apply, for example, to services such as Outlook, Gmail and Instagram, though every suspected case will have to be reviewed by a human before being reported to the authorities.

Encrypted messages in apps such as WhatsApp or Signal will remain exempt from monitoring, and it will not be possible to use software that checks message content before it is encrypted.

Privacy advocates have long criticized the measure, arguing that it constitutes an unreasonable intrusion into privacy while failing to provide sufficiently effective protection for children.

(mja)