Europe orders take-down of child porn sites

MEPs sitting on the Civil Liberties Committee have voted to amend European law to force member states to take down child pornography sites, rather than merely blocking them.

They have also called for EU-wide criminalisation of "grooming".

The new laws could be in force in the UK in 2013.

The amendment goes significantly further than the original proposals on blocking of child porn images, and would mean a change in approach for the UK, Denmark and Sweden, where the emphasis is on preventing access not taking sites down.

Last month, the Digital Rights Group criticised the current laws regarding blocking, saying they were "cosmetic measures... used as a replacement for real action".

The group called on MEPs to toughen the laws, to which the committee has duly responded.

The amendment reads: "Member states shall take the necessary legislative measures to obtain the removal at source of internet pages containing or disseminating child pornography or child abuse material. Internet pages containing such material shall be removed, especially when originating from an EU member state."

MEPs argue that "it is necessary to ensure as quickly as possible the full removal at source" of those internet pages and to identify the offenders to start procedures against them, as the investigation and prosecution of such crimes should be a priority.

Where removal is impossible, for example because pages are hosted outside the EU, member states may still prevent access to material, in line with their national laws, the committee proposes.

But member states must co-operate with countries outside the EU to secure the prompt removal of such material from servers hosted in those countries, they add.

The number of web sites devoted to child pornography is growing, says the committee. It estimates that 200 offending images are put into circulation every day.

Blocking child abuse sites is ineffective, argue the committee members.

Technical work-arounds mean images can still be accessed even from blocked sites. And there have been instances of sites that campaign against child porn being accidentally blocked.

Furthermore, blocking is challengeable under the Human Rights Act. But if the material isn't there to block access to, no challenge is possible.

However, recognising that some countries outside the EU may be unwilling to co-operate and that procedures for removing the material from servers can be overly long, blocking access is sanctioned as a fall-back or temporary measure.

Blocking mechanisms could include judicial or police order, or a voluntary code worked out with ISPs.