EU failure on temporary derogation puts children at risk

The IWF is deeply disappointed at the failure of the European Union to agree on an extension of the temporary law (the derogation to the ePrivacy Directive) that currently allows online platforms to detect and report images and videos of child sexual abuse in the EU on a voluntary basis. Unless a solution is urgently found before 3 April, companies will face legal uncertainty about whether they can search for and block child sexual abuse on their services.

The IWF calls on negotiators from the European Parliament to urgently return to the negotiating table. The failure to come to a compromise is a direct threat to child safety.

When detection of child sexual abuse material stops, reports to law enforcement fall. In 2020, a brief disruption in detection caused reports from EU services to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to drop by 58 per cent in just 18 weeks. 

In 2025 alone, the Internet Watch Foundation confirmed over 312,000 reports of child sexual abuse material – a 7% increase on the previous year. And more than three in every five (62%) child sexual abuse reports in 2024 were traced to hosting services in EU Member States.

Against this backdrop, we are now facing a legal void that may lead technology companies operating in the EU to dismantle their child protection systems for an indefinite period.

Detection is the first step in protecting children. Databases of known abuse material, including the IWF’s hash list which serves technology companies across the world, protect victims and survivors through the identification of new material. Without legal clarity, this pipeline will be broken. 

Child sexual abuse and exploitation online is a complex problem and requires a range of complimentary solutions to mitigate harms, to address generation, consumption, and distribution. 

When it comes to distribution of known child sexual abuse images and videos, proactive detection technology is foundational. If it is actively removed, the entire online safety ecosystem is compromised. User reporting, which is well known to be ineffective at tackling the scale of abuse material being shared online, will not touch the sides. Even if an image is reported, it is after the harm has happened, and there will be nothing to stop the same image being uploaded and shared again and again. 

The landscape has materially changed since the last legal gap. The number of AI-generated child sexual abuse videos found and assessed by the IWF jumped from 13 in 2024 to 3,440 in 2025. 

The temporary derogation was never permanent. It was intended as a bridge to allow platforms to continue detecting and reporting abuse while the EU finalises the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation.