On 28 June 2021, the Council of Europe is organising a public online event to present the independent experts’ report “Respecting human rights and the rule of law when using automated technology to detect online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA)”.
The scale of online child sexual exploitation and abuse is increasing at an alarming rate. This most worrying trend calls for innovative countering techniques.
To date, the response to this challenge consists largely of voluntary actions involving the use of automated detection technologies by private sector actors in order to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material as well as text-based threats, such as grooming.
The report represents the first step in response to the request of the Committee of the Parties to the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Committee) to support Council of Europe member states in light of a debate triggered in the context of the EU to allow the processing of personal and other data for the purpose of combating OCSEA. It combines Council of Europe expertise in the fields of human rights, child protection, data protection and fight against cybercrime exploring appropriate solutions to reconcile the various human rights at stake while ensuring necessary safeguards in actions carried out in the public interest.
The report is a “must read” for anyone active and interested in the protection of children against sexual violence. It has been prepared by a group of recognised independent experts - Liora Lazarus, Jean-Christophe Le Toquin, Manuel Aires Magriço, Francisco Nunes, Katarzyna Staciwa, Gert Vermeulen and Ian Walden - led by Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, the former President of the European Court of Human Rights and assisted by the Council of Europe Secretariat. The experts put special care in making the content accessible to most readers, despite the complexity of the issue.
The report will be released in English on the occasion of its public launch and will be made available in French at a later stage.
Calls for Tenders
