Governmental conflict and the concept of privacy

The European Parliament and Council claim in their proposal that the EU still fails to protect children from falling victim to child sexual abuse and that the online dimension represents a particular challenge (European Commission, 2022). The European Union, therefore, seeks to compel service providers to automatically and indiscriminately check all private conversations, messages, and emails for questionable content. There are clearly both supporters and opponents of this proposition based on the volume of online discourse.

On 11 May 2022, the European Parliament and Council proposed a regulation laying down guidelines to prevent and combat child sexual abuse in the fight against sexual violence during childhood, including online sexual abuse against minors. Child sexual abuse material is a product of the physical sexual abuse of children, they claim. Its detection and reporting are essential for locating and helping its victims and preventing its creation and dissemination.