Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

927. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to review the decision to sign up to the Child Sexual Abuse Material regulation, given issues around privacy that have been raised (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48858/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the prevalence of online child sexual exploitation and abuse continues to grow, the need for effective legislation and international co-operation becomes all the more important. Online service providers must be empowered and, where necessary, compelled to detect, remove and report such abuse on their platforms.

This Government supports the draft Regulation’s intention to place a mandatory obligation on all service providers, rather than leave any ambiguity about the responsibilities service providers have, to address child sexual abuse and exploitation on their services.

The proposed Regulation seeks to establish a harmonised legal framework, which will set out the responsibilities for providers to assess and mitigate risks and, where necessary, to detect, report and remove such abuse on their services. The proposal builds on the Digital Services Act, which lays down horizontal rules in relation to illegal content and complements it with provisions to address the specific challenges posed by child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

Ireland supports the fundamental principles underlying the Commission proposal, i.e. that it should apply to all forms of online child sexual abuse, and that it should be technology-neutral, and applicable to all relevant services.

Ireland is satisfied with the safeguards contained in the proposal in respect of privacy and data protection, particularly the necessity that detection orders be issued by a court, having taken into account the fundamental rights of all parties. Detection orders are a measure of last resort, are time bound and targeted at a particular service, that has failed through other measures, to effectively prevent the dissemination of CSAM on their service.

Negotiations are on-going for this proposal, and the current text around detection orders and end-to-end-encrypted (E2EE) services specifies that where a detection order is issued to a provider who uses E2EE, the provider is required to detect the dissemination of CSAM prior to its transmission in the encrypted channel.

The privacy concerns associated with the proposal are recognised, and much of the negotiations have focused on ensuring that users’ rights to privacy are appropriately balanced with the protection of children and of child victims of abuse.

This Government strongly supports the introduction of robust legislation at EU level to tackle online child sexual abuse and exploitation.