Skip to main content
NOPE
Pending Law Child Protection

EU CSAR (Proposed)

Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (CSAR)

Proposed permanent framework replacing interim derogation. Parliament position (Nov 2023) limits detection to known/new CSAM, excludes E2EE services. Council has not agreed General Approach.

Jurisdiction

European Union

Enacted

Pending

Effective

TBD

Enforcement

TBD

Trilogues began December 9, 2025. Council dropped mandatory chat scanning November 2025. Interim derogation expires April 3, 2026. Final deal expected by June 2026.

EUR-Lex

Why It Matters

If EU adopts detection-order model, becomes global reference—directly colliding with encrypted messaging and private AI chat.

Recent Developments

Council position (November 2025) dropped mandatory encrypted message scanning in favor of voluntary framework. Political trilogues scheduled Feb 26, May 4, June 29, 2026. EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse to be established.

At a Glance

Applies to

Social PlatformOnline PlatformGeneral ChatbotAI Companion

Harms addressed

Child Exploitation

Who Must Comply

  • Online services and communications providers (scope TBD)

Obligations fall on:

Safety Provisions

  • Risk assessment + mitigation duties for at-risk services
  • Potential detection orders (contested)
  • EU Centre for coordination/reporting
  • Parliament: excludes E2EE, limits to known/new CSAM (not grooming)

Compliance & Enforcement

Penalties

Penalties pending regulatory determination

View on map

European Union

Focus Areas

Child safety
Active safeguards required

Cite This

APA

European Union. (n.d.). Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (CSAR).

Related Regulations

In Effect EU

EU DSA Minors Guidelines

Commission guidelines under DSA Article 28(1) establishing measures for online platforms to protect minors, including age assurance, default privacy settings, anti-addictive design restrictions, recommender system safeguards, and protections against grooming and exploitation.

In Effect EU

EU CSAM Interim

Temporary legal bridge allowing certain communications providers to voluntarily detect/report/remove CSAM, notwithstanding ePrivacy constraints. Extended via 2024/1307 while permanent CSAR negotiated.

In Effect DE

DE JuSchG §24a (KidD)

Requires providers of certain telemedia services to implement provider-side precautionary measures ("Vorsorgemaßnahmen") with regulator-facing evaluability via published BzKJ criteria.

In Effect FR

FR SREN

France's 2024 "digital space" law strengthening national digital regulation and enforcement levers via ARCOM across platform safety and integrity issues.

In Effect IE

Ireland OSMR

Establishes Coimisiún na Meán (Media Commission) with binding duties for video-sharing platforms. One of the cleaner examples of explicit self-harm/suicide/eating-disorder content duties in platform governance.

In Effect FI

Finland AI Act

Finland's EU AI Act implementation using decentralized supervision model. Traficom serves as single point of contact and coordination authority. Ten market surveillance authorities share enforcement across sectors. New Sanctions Board handles fines over EUR 100,000.

All regulations Check if this applies to you

Last updated February 11, 2026. Verify against primary sources before relying on this information.