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Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD): "We urgently need to protect the children"
Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser sees an "urgent need for action" in the fight against sexual abuse of children on the Internet.
"We urgently need to protect the children," said the SPD politician on Sunday in the ARD program "Report from Berlin".
The minister said that an average of 49 children per day were victims of sexualised violence last year.
She was referring to a report by the Federal Criminal Police Office, which is to be presented on Monday.
It is "one of the worst forms of crime".
Faeser reiterated her position on the EU Commission's plans to make it easier to track down perpetrators.
Being tough on this "disgusting form of crime," she said, doesn't rule out protecting private information.
Google and Facebook are to search services using software
According to the will of the EU Commission, whoever shares photos and videos of sexual abuse of children on the Internet should be made easier in the future.
As can be seen from a draft law presented in mid-May, providers such as Google or Facebook could be obliged to use software to search their services for corresponding representations.
In addition, an EU center is to be set up to provide the relevant technology.
"In my view, it is not necessary for us to go into private chats without a reason," said Faeser.
Rather, it is about publicly accessible chats that are not encrypted and about platforms on which images are shared.
"We want to look into that, but we don't want to look into encrypted, private communication," emphasized Faeser.
Therefore one wants to issue a »differentiated opinion on the EU directive«.
The Commission's proposals do not dictate what technology platforms or internet providers use to detect illegal content affecting children.
Accordingly, there is no need to stop at encrypted content, not even with encrypted chats in messenger services such as Whatsapp.
The European Parliament was therefore already concerned that data protection and the privacy of users would no longer be guaranteed.
muk/dpa/AFP
