The number of child abuse messages on online channels has reached an all-time high, but privacy activists are not happy with the proposed solution to curb the plague.
The Kids Online "Safety" Act is becoming a privacy nightmare
The European Commission (EC) recently proposed new rules that would require chat apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to search the private messages of flagged users for child sexual abuse material.
“This is an impressively bold and ambitious proposal to systematically prevent avoidable child abuse and grooming, which is happening at record levels,” Andy Burrows, head of Child Safety Online at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), told Lifewire via email. “If passed, it will place a clear requirement on platforms to combat abuse wherever it occurs, including in private messages where children are most at risk.”
The regulation aims to establish new rules for online platforms, collectively referred to as online service providers, and covers a wide range of services, including app stores, web hosting companies and any provider of 'interpersonal communications services'.
