Brussels: The European Parliament is preparing to set its negotiating position in June 2026 on a recast of the EU child sexual abuse directive, the bloc’s criminal-law framework for prosecuting offenders, clearing the way for final talks with member states later this month. The vote on Parliament’s mandate would unlock trilogue negotiations with the Council on a file the European Commission first proposed on 6 February 2024.

What the child sexual abuse directive covers

The directive, formally a revision of Directive 2011/93/EU, sets minimum EU-wide rules on offences, penalties and victim protection. It is separate from the contested online-scanning regulation, focusing instead on the criminal code: how abuse, grooming and the production of abuse material are defined and punished across all 27 member states.

The Commission’s recast seeks to modernise the 2011 rules to reflect new forms of online offending, including:

• Updated definitions covering live-streamed abuse and AI-generated abuse material.
• Tougher rules on grooming and the solicitation of children online.
• Stronger obligations on prevention, survivor support and limitation periods for prosecutions.

Where the talks stand

Trilogue negotiations on the broader child-protection agenda opened in December 2025, but progress has been uneven. A parallel push to extend an interim derogation letting platforms voluntarily detect abuse material stalled after Parliament declined to prolong it in spring 2026, leaving the criminal-law directive as the clearer path to agreement.

The revision aims to ensure that offences are effectively investigated and prosecuted and that child victims receive the assistance, support and protection they need, the European Commission says.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the negotiating mandate in plenary before turning to talks with the Council, with a political trilogue pencilled in for late June.

Reactions

Child-rights organisations have pressed negotiators to keep penalties strong while improving prevention and survivor support, urging the institutions to keep the rights of children at the centre of the process. Civil-liberties campaigners, meanwhile, have welcomed the decision to keep mandatory message scanning out of the criminal directive.

How we got here

The 2011 directive was a landmark in EU criminal law, the first to harmonise definitions of child sexual abuse offences across the bloc. More than a decade on, the Commission argues the rules have been outpaced by technology, pointing to the surge in online grooming and the spread of self-generated and computer-generated abuse imagery.

Implementation gaps have also persisted, with the Commission noting uneven transposition by member states. Supporters say a recast child sexual abuse directive could close those gaps and give investigators clearer tools. With Parliament’s mandate imminent, the coming weeks will test whether the EU can update one of its oldest child-protection laws without reopening the privacy battles that have stalled its online-safety agenda. For background, see the Parliament’s legislative train on the directive revision.