La Commission européenne rappelle son souhait d'instaurer du filtrage pour les contenus pédopornographiques

Alors qu'en France, le cadre juridique permettant un blocage à l'accès de contenus pédopornographiques est en voie d'être définitivement adopté, plusieurs parlementaires européens avaient demandé à la Commission européenne d'apporter des explications quant au soutien, notamment financier, donné au réseau "Circamp", un projet du "COSPOL" (Comprehensive Operational Strategic Planning for Police). Ce réseau vise à lutter contre la distribution commerciale organisée de contenus pédopornographiques.

Une des solutions proposées par le réseau Circamp est de procéder à un blocage de l'accès à certains sites internet. Pour le réseau Circamp, "le blocage de l’accès à des images d’exploitation d’enfants en tant que mesure préventive et en fonction de la législation nationale, par l’introduction du Child Sexual Abuse Anti Distribution Filter (CSAADF)".

Néanmoins, un paragraphe du site internet du réseau Circamp a fait bondir les parlementaires européens. Ce paragraphe revient sur la possibilité de procéder à un blocage d'un nom de domaine (avec le risque de surblocage que cela pourrait entraîner). En effet, le site de Circamp prévoit ceci :

"The CSAADF focuses on blocking on domain level. We believe that this places the responsibility for the content of any domain or sub domain in the hands of the domain owner or administrator. If a domain owner places, accidental or willingly, child abuse material on his/her domain, and it is blocked by the police, the blocking will not be lifted until the material is removed. We believe that this will motivate content providers on the Internet to actively make an effort to avoid files with child sexual abuse on their systems/services. CIRCAMP believes that the police should not function as a moderator of Internet services, removing or blocking out parts of the available content, like an image. One image of a child in a sexual exploitive situation on a domain can/will result in the whole domain becoming unavailable in participating countries until removed. It is our experience that some domain owners/administrators are indifferent to the content they are providing access to, and there is a need for them to make informed decisions as to what content they are distributing and making available on the Internet."

En réponse, Neelie Kroes, Commissaire européenne en charge de la société de l'informatique, répond le 17 janvier 2011 de la manière suivante :

"The Commission provided funding from the Safer Internet programme to the CIRCAMP project for the period 01/11/2008 to 31/10/2010.

The overall aim of this project was to stimulate organised and extensive cross-border exchange of best practice between law enforcement agencies in the fight against production, online distribution and access to child sexual abuse material. In particular, it aimed to share the use of a filtering system. In each country where the tool is implemented, the list of web sites hosting child abuse images is drawn up by national police forces in accordance with the requirements of national law.

The CIRCAMP project did not promote a specific level of blocking; this is decided by the country in question, at domain level in some countries, in others a combination of domain and URL blocking. The project did not have as its objective to put in place a general obligation to monitor, nor have companies felt obliged to put any such system in place as a result of the work of the project. The Commission is not responsible for the CIRCAMP Web site and so it would be inappropriate to comment on its contents.

The Commission has tabled on 29 March a proposal for a Directive on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. Child pornography is first and foremost the depiction of an awful crime against a child, and dissemination of child abuse images on the Internet is a gross violation of the child's privacy. Among a number of measures to combat and disrupt it, the Commission has proposed that Member States should, subject to appropriate legal safeguards, take measures to obtain the blocking of access by Internet users in their territory to web pages containing child pornography. The choice of technical tools to meet this obligation remains with Member States."

Ainsi, la réponse rappelle le souhait de la Commission européenne de faire adopter une Directive prévoyant la possibilité pour les Etats membres de procéder au blocage des contenus pédopornographiques.

Source : Réponse écrite de Neelie Kroes à Marietje Schaake, Sophia in't Veld, Alexander Alvaro et Nadja Hirsch, 17 janvier 2011