It’s official. And it’s not good, even if it is “for the children”.

A temporary EU Regulation that was just adopted that, until December 2022 will allow the continuation of voluntary scanning of all communications to detect and report to authorities online child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Why you should be worried

The long answer is this post by EDRI. Its gist is that:

• This legislation will legalise the continuous scanning of all communications, sall the time by certain service providers, instead of promoting a targeted approach that focuses on genuine suspects for a limited period of time. The services under the scope of the interim Regulation are as broadly defined as in the ePrivacy Directive, including your Facebook Messenger messages, Tinder chats, emails and any other form of online communication that will come up in the future is potentially under the scope: “Yes, your Tinder spicy conversations may be scanned too”.

• The interim Regulation will be in force until December 2022, and in the meantime the long-term legislative solution will be developed and adopted. The long-term CSAM legislation is expected to be proposed by the Commission in October 2021. There is nothing one can do as regards the interim Regulation.

However, EDRI recommends you to contact our local digital rights organisations and ask how you can help ahead of the upcoming long-term legislation that will substitute that interim norm.