The draft Parliament position was adopted by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs with 51 votes in favour, 2 against, and 1 abstaining. Inter-institutional negotiations were authorised with 48 in favour, 2 against, and 4 abstaining.

To protect children online, the new rules would mandate internet providers to assess whether there is a significant risk of their services being misused for online child sexual abuse and to solicit children, and to take measures to mitigate these risks. MEPs want mitigation measures to be targeted, proportionate and effective, and providers should be able to decide which ones to use. They also want to ensure that pornographic sites have adequate age verification systems, flagging mechanisms for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and human content moderation to process these reports.

To stop minors being solicited online, MEPs propose that services targeting children should require by default user consent for unsolicited messages,…