Commission welcomes political agreement on criminal law rules to fight child sexual abuse

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The Commission welcomes today’s political agreement with the European Parliament and Council on the Directive updating the criminal law rules on child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. Worrisome trends like the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated abuse material make today’s agreement even more timely.

This Directive addresses new challenges, improves investigation and prosecution, strengthens prevention and assistance to victims and promotes better coordination in the fight against child sexual abuse. The key points of the new common rules are:

• Updated definitions: This includes the first EU-wide definition of non-consensual sexual acts, also extending protection to children who remain silent. There is also a clear exemption from criminalisation for hotlines where victims call for help.
• New offences reflecting modern realities: The new rules criminalise the use of technology to generate child sexual abuse images and videos, deepfakes and other material, the livestreaming of child sexual abuse, sexual extortion, and AI systems to produce child sexual abuse material. Protection from grooming is extended to children who have reached the age of sexual consent, in certain situations such as when they are threatened or coerced.
• Reinforced rules on prevention: With mandatory criminal records checks for professional and organised voluntary activities requiring direct and regular contact with children, and a reporting obligation for such professionals, when the child is in serious and imminent danger.
• Stronger support for victims: To ensure they receive the necessary targeted and age-appropriate support for child victims (healthcare, helplines, referral centres), and right to claim full compensation. The statute of limitations is also extended, allowing victims the time needed to seek justice.

The digital threat of child sexual abuse has evolved significantly over the past years. The current EU rules in this area were agreed in 2011, and had to be adapted to address the revolution in the digital world that took place since. Reports of child sexual abuse online increased from one million in 2010 to more than 23 million in 2025. These reports contained 61.8 million files, including 29.4 million images and 26.3 million videos. Data also show an exponential increase of online solicitation of children (grooming), with the number of reports increasing by more than 30 times in the last 5 years. 

This Directive represents a significant achievement. However, it will only be effective if we are able to identify offenders. Today, up to 80% of criminal investigations into child sexual abuse are launched because of reports of images and videos of such abuse from online service providers. It is therefore essential that the co-legislators urgently reach an agreement on rules for such reports that effectively prevent and combat child sexual abuse online.

Next steps

This new Directive must be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. Once adopted, it will amend the existing legislation (Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA) and enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. 

Background

The Commission put forward a proposal to update the criminal law rules on child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation in 2024. These revised rules now expand the definitions of offences and introduce higher penalties and more specific requirements for prevention and assistance to victims. They are complementary to the proposal for a Regulation that the Commission put forward in 2022 – which sets out obligations for internet companies to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material on their services.

While the Directive reinforces legal certainty through aligned criminal frameworks, the Regulation establishes operational obligations for platforms, creating a dual-layered system to close protection gaps. Even with the new criminal rules agreed, since the Interim Regulation allowing the detection of child sexual abuse online expired on 3 April and there is no long-term framework agreed yet, children are still less protected against sexual abuse. A new legal framework for the identification of child sexual abuse online is urgently needed to fight child sexual abuse.

For more information

Child sexual abuse