The European Union is preparing harsher penalties for sexual abuse of children and new rules for online crimes.
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The European Parliament and the Council have reached an agreement on updating the European directive to combat sexual abuse of children, with rules adapted to new forms of online exploitation, artificial intelligence, livestreaming, grooming, and sexual blackmail. The new norms will extend the periods in which victims can report abuses, increase maximum penalties for several offenses, and require member states to provide specialized support to victims, explicitly treated as survivors of abuse.
The European Union is preparing tougher and more current rules against sexual abuse of children, at a time when the exploitation of minors is increasingly moving into the digital space, through online grooming, digitally generated or distributed materials, livestreaming, sexual blackmail, and tools created to facilitate abuse. The European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on Monday to modernize the European directive regarding the fight against these crimes.
In short
The new norms will criminalize forms of abuse related to technology, including instruction manuals for committing offenses, livestreaming, grooming, sexual blackmail, and certain artificial intelligence systems created for producing materials of sexual abuse against children.
The limitation periods will be significantly extended, allowing victims to report abuses after years or decades.
For the most serious offenses, the limitation period will be 32 years from the victim's reaching adulthood.
Member states will have to ensure specialized support, protection, and the possibility of seeking compensation from offenders.
Employers will have to conduct background checks for positions that involve regular contact with children, including in organized volunteer activities.
The agreement updates the European legal framework in an area where technology has changed both the way crimes are committed and the difficulty of investigating them. Existing rules are supplemented with new offenses, stricter penalties, longer deadlines for investigations, and clearer measures to support victims.
One of the most important changes concerns the criminalization of tools used to facilitate abuse. The production, possession, or distribution of instruction manuals for sexual abuse offenses against children, including exploitation and solicitation, will be punished with at least two years in prison.
Negotiators have also introduced rules regarding artificial intelligence. AI systems designed or specifically adapted for producing materials of sexual abuse against children will fall under the new legislation, and the acquisition, possession, or distribution of such systems can be punished with up to two years in prison.
The new norms also include livestreaming of sexual abuse against children and sexual blackmail, meaning threatening a child with the publication of abusive materials. These forms of exploitation have become more visible in the online environment and can produce severe psychological pressure on victims, even when the offender is not physically present in the same location.
Grooming will be treated more clearly in European legislation. The proposal for a meeting with a child under the age of consent will be punished when it leads to offenses, with up to one year in prison, or up to two years if coercion, force, or threats are used.
Attempting to solicit a child, including online, for the provision of materials of sexual abuse against children will also be punished. The penalty can reach six months in prison, or one year if there is coercion, force, or threat.
The legislation will also cover organizing the travel of another person to another country for the purpose of abuse, an offense that can be punished with up to one year in prison. This provision addresses the cross-border dimension of child exploitation, where movement, intermediaries, and differences between national legislations can be used to evade responsibility.
The agreement also strengthens penalties for several existing offenses. Obtaining, possessing, or accessing with good knowledge of materials of sexual abuse against children will be punished with at least two years in prison, while distributing, disseminating, providing, or making available such materials will be punished with at least three years.
Member states will have to ensure that materials of sexual abuse against children hosted on their territory can be removed quickly. If immediate removal is not possible, authorities will have to ensure that internet users on their territory cannot access those materials.
An important part of the agreement concerns consent. Penetrative sexual activities with children over the age of consent, but who do not consent, can be punished with up to 10 years in prison. In the case of children under the age of consent, the penalty can reach 12 years.
A major change concerns limitation periods. Victims of sexual abuse against children often need years or decades to be able to talk about what happened to them. The new norms extend the periods in which offenses can be investigated and prosecuted, precisely to avoid blocking access to justice due to the passage of time.
For the most serious offenses, such as penetrative sexual activities or coercing children under the age of consent for the purpose of exploitation through prostitution, the limitation period will be 32 years from the victim's reaching adulthood. For most offenses punishable with 5 to 10 years in prison, the period will be 20 years, and for a third category, including the production of materials of sexual abuse against children, the period will be 15 years.
Victims will need to receive specialized and adequate support. Member states will seek to ensure that child victims receive assessment, support, and protection in a child-friendly environment and, where possible, in the same place, to avoid re-traumatization in administrative or judicial procedures.
Victims will have the right to seek compensation from offenders. Additionally, helplines must be available to inform victims and the public about existing support.
The new norms also address the area of prevention. Awareness campaigns will need to clearly convey that sex without consent is a crime and that consent must be given freely. Member states will need to have effective intervention programs for offenders, during or after criminal proceedings, to reduce the risk of recidivism.
Reporting rules will be strengthened. Professional secrecy must not prevent reporting when there are reasonable grounds for suspicion of abuse. Professionals who work closely with children will have the obligation to report cases where there are substantial grounds to believe that the child's welfare is in serious and imminent danger due to a sexual abuse offense.
Organizations working for the protection of children will receive a clearer role. Member states must ensure a legal basis for administering support and assistance helplines, and the legislation encourages allowing the search for publicly available materials of sexual abuse against children on hosting services, to facilitate their identification and removal.
Background checks will become more important in recruitment. Employers recruiting for positions with regular contact with children will need to check whether the candidate has been convicted of sexual abuse offenses against children. This obligation will also cover organized volunteer activities with children, such as after-school activities.
Rapporteur Jeroen Lenaers, MEP from the Netherlands, stated that negotiators listened to victims and that it became clear that legislation needs to be updated to reflect their experiences and current challenges. He stated that the agreement significantly extends limitation periods for serious offenses, addresses grooming and the dissemination of online abuse materials, and provides authorities with tools to combat new forms of abuse, including artificial intelligence systems and instruction manuals.
The legal text is set to be finalized by technical teams. Then, the European Parliament and the Council must formally adopt the law before it is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
After entering into force, member states will have three years to transpose the directive into national legislation. The stakes will then be concrete implementation: investigations capable of pursuing digital crimes, real support for victims, cooperation with online platforms, and better checks in environments where adults work with children.
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