Deletion of reports concerning child sexual abuse at alarming rates
Battling Child Abuse Content Online: Germany's "Deletion Instead of Blocking" Approach
Last year, over half of the child sexual abuse content removed from German servers was eliminated within just over two days, as per the latest federal government's report. This marks a significant drop from the previous year's removal rate, with hosting providers swiftly acting on most reports.
The report reveals that around 56% of content hosted in Germany, reported to law enforcement, was removed within a couple of days. Despite the decrease, the proportion of content removed by hosting providers within a week remained impressively high at 99%.
Cross-Border Challenges
However, eliminating content hosted abroad poses complexities, involving multiple parties, making the process lengthier. According to a joint statement from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior, last year, only 38.7% of abroad-hosted child sexual abuse content was removed within a week. This was a decline from 57.6% in 2023. After four weeks, the deletion rate was 84.17%, a slight decrease from the earlier year's rate of 88.2%.
The German Parliament adopted the "Deletion instead of Blocking" principle back in 2011. Since then, child pornographic depictions have moved from being hidden behind road signs to being completely deleted online.
"Every distributed recording of these acts is another act of violence," said Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). "Sexual abuse of children is one of the most heinous crimes," added Federal Minister of Justice, Stefanie Hubig (SPD). Those who distribute recordings of child abuse must be held accountable, the federal government argues, and will reinforce prosecution efforts by introducing a mandatory storage of IP addresses.
The NetzDG's Impact
The "Deletion instead of Blocking" policy is embedded in the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). This law, enacted in 2017, mandates social media platforms to delete "obviously illegal" content within 24 hours of a complaint and any illegal content within 7 days after review. The NetzDG has led to improvements in complaints management and public accountability, according to an evaluation commissioned by the German Ministry of Justice.
While the law can face criticism for potentially promoting over-censorship or pre-emptive removal, it has been effective in removing child sexual abuse content. Platforms are legally bound to eliminate such content swiftly after complaints, with deletion prioritized over blocking, minimizing the chances of its reappearance via different channels or geographies. Although specific current deletion rates for child sexual abuse content are not mentioned in the provided documents, the law's framework encourages rapid removals, ensuring high compliance with the law.
- The "Deletion instead of Blocking" policy, enshrined in the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), applies not only to general news and politics discussions but also to sensitive topics such as policy-and-legislation regarding crime-and-justice, including the elimination of child abuse content online.
- In light of the significant progress made in the deletion of child sexual abuse content hosted in Germany, the focus on policy-and-legislation and crime-and-justice issues is crucial, as the approach of swift deletion rather than blocking is aimed at minimizing the reappearance of such content via different channels or geographies, contributing to a safer online environment.
