The GSMA welcomes the European Parliament’s adoption of new rules to combat and prevent child sexual abuse online.
Today’s vote marks an important step in the fight against the online dissemination of child sexual abuse material, and we share with the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs the desire to make the Internet a safe environment for children to use, with effective prevention and offering support to victims of such abuse.
We congratulate Javier Zarzalejos MEP and the shadow rapporteurs for securing broad consensus across Parliament in the face of an at-times polarising debate around certain aspects of this Regulation. This effort creates a workable framework that will provide better protection for minors while balancing equally important fundamental rights at stake.
In particular, the GSMA believes that the Parliament’s report ensures:
- Proportionality – recognising the different roles and responsibilities of the actors in the Internet value chain;
- Effectiveness – aiming at removing child sexual abuse material at source over generic website blocking;
- Balance – enhancing prevention while safeguarding encryption and privacy of communications.
Helping to end abuse and violence against children online is important to the GSMA, its members and the mobile industry overall.
The GSMA stands behind the rapporteurs’ call for unity and action, and we encourage the Council to follow the European Parliament’s approach as the negotiations advance.
For more information please contact:
Pierantonio Rizzo
Director, EU Affairs, GSMA
Pierantonio Rizzo leads the public policy activities on Digital Economy and Society matters at the GSMA Europe. In his role of Director EU Affairs, Pierantonio is responsible for Platform economy, Data, Artificial Intelligence, Consumer policy and Disinformation. He also contributes to the work of the European Commission’ stakeholders expert group on the REFIT of Consumer law.
Prior to joining the GSMA in 2017, Pierantonio worked at the European Parliament for an Italian MEP, where he followed the activities of IMCO and AFET Committees. He began his career as policy analyst at Rohde Public Policy, a public affairs consultancy firm.
Pierantonio holds a Masters of European Affairs from the Catholic University of Paris and a LLM from the University of Bologna, during which he had an exchange program with the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Pierantonio speaks Italian, English, French and is currently learning Spanish.