EU Law on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Delayed

The European Union had a significant opportunity to address one of its major legislative challenges on Thursday, but the decision is still pending for the public.

The contentious law involves “Rules for preventing and combating child sexual abuse” in online communications. Should it pass, it could significantly impact the privacy rights of individuals.

“Chat controls are here.”

This law has been on the table since May 2022, a proposal that has been under consideration for over four years now. Lawmakers voted once more to send the bill back to the Council of the European Union, which consists of representatives from the member states.

To reject the bill, lawmakers would need a minimum of 361 votes, meaning that even a simple majority wouldn’t suffice to quash it.

Cypriot Member of Parliament Fidias Panayiotou expressed disappointment, stating, “Chat control will begin. Despite many members of the European Parliament wanting to dismiss the chat ban, we did not secure enough votes for an outright majority. Today is a bleak day for Europeans,” he noted.

The aim of the EU’s proposal is to eliminate and curb child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by mandating social media and tech companies to scan their communications for potentially harmful content.

As noted in a report from the EU, since November 2025, there has been a clarifying effort regarding what data tech companies have gathered while participating in voluntary detection trials. The companies involved have confirmed that they collected various forms of traffic data including:

• Data linked to user accounts (e.g., user ID, username, IP address from companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft).
• Metadata associated with content.
• Information pertaining to potential victims.
• Operational data misuse.

All providers reported that their collections included videos and images.

Now the question arises: should these scans extend to monitoring encrypted services, a part of what’s termed Chat Control 2.0?

Reports indicate that Thursday’s vote unfolded in a rather “chaotic” manner, with one lawmaker commenting to the EU Parliament’s deputy president, “I’m not even sure what I’m voting for.”

Member states are considering whether to accept the proposed changes or to distance themselves from the EU entirely.