On 13 October, ECPAT and the NSPCC published the results of a new survey on protecting children from sexual abuse online. Between 30 August and 29 September, more than 25,000 adults in 15 member states of the European Union and the United Kingdom were surveyed on the topic. According to the survey, 95 percent of the respondents believe that it is important to have legal regulations on the prevention and protection of children from sexual violence online. Almost as many respondents (91 per cent) agreed that internet service providers should be obliged to design their services in such a way that they are safe for children and prevent sexual abuse against them. Fewer, but still a large majority of respondents (81 per cent) agreed with the statement that providers of online services should be required to search for such depictions in their services as well as to report and remove them.
The results of the survey are published by ECPAT and NSPCC at a time when the European Council and the European Parliament are discussing a regulatory proposalof the European Commission to combat online sexual violence against children and are preparing their respective decisions on how to deal with this draft. At the centre of the discussion is whether and to what extent the detection of grooming or depiction of sexual abuse against children should also be made possible in encrypted services. In the survey, 72 per cent of the participants expressed their willingness to accept a compromise for the advantage of child protection and at the expense of their privacy in order to make it possible to search for these unlawful activities.