Security News > 2022 > May > E.U. Proposes New Rules for Tech Companies to Combat Online Child Sexual Abuse

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed new regulation that would require tech companies to scan for child sexual abuse material and grooming behavior, raising worries that it could undermine end-to-end encryption.

While instant messaging services like WhatsApp already rely on hashed versions of known CSAM to automatically block new uploads of images or videos matching them, the new plan requires such platforms to identify and flag new instances of CSAM. "Detection technologies must only be used for the purpose of detecting child sexual abuse," the regulator said.

A new EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse, which will be independently established to enforce the measures, has been tasked with maintaining a database of digital "Indicators" of child sexual abuse, in addition to processing and forwarding legitimate reports for law enforcement action.

A primary privacy and security concern arising out of scanning devices for illegal pictures of sexual abuse is that the technology could weaken privacy by creating backdoors to defeat E2EE protections and facilitate large-scale surveillance.

The privacy afforded by encryption is also proving to be a double-edged sword, with governments increasingly fighting back over worries that encrypted platforms are being misused by malicious actors for terrorism, cybercrime, and child abuse.

"At the same time, its use as a secure channel could be abused of by criminals to hide their actions, thereby impeding efforts to bring perpetrators of child sexual abuse to justice."

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/eu-proposes-new-rules-for-tech.html