European Parliament narrows child abuse detection privacy exemption

The European Parliament adopted amendments Thursday to narrow a temporary exemption to EU privacy rules allowing electronic communications providers to detect online child sexual abuse, while seeking to exclude end-to-end encrypted communications from the proposed surveillance measures.

Legislative amendments

Lawmakers approved changes to the EU Council's position on the temporary derogation from the ePrivacy Directive, proposing that communications protected by end-to-end encryption be excluded from the scope of the legislation. The amended text will now be forwarded to the European Council, which has three months to decide whether to accept the proposed modifications.

Encryption safeguards

The EU Council's proposal would restore a temporary exemption that expired in April, allowing providers of electronic communications services to voluntarily detect, remove and report child sexual abuse material and instances of online child solicitation. Parliament's amendments seek to ensure that end-to-end encrypted communications remain outside the scope of such detection measures.

Procedural next steps

If the EU Council does not approve all of parliament's proposed changes, the legislation will proceed to conciliation talks between the two institutions to reach a final agreement. The temporary exemption is intended to prevent a legal gap while negotiations continue on a permanent EU framework to combat online child sexual abuse.

Permanent framework negotiations

Negotiations on a permanent legislative framework to replace the temporary exemption remain ongoing, according to the European Parliament. Most elements of the proposed law were agreed during the Greek Cypriot Administration's presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2026, with discussions continuing on several outstanding issues.