According to proposals adopted by the Civil Liberties Committee of the EU Parliament, anyone guilty of child abuse or who watches child pornography online could face from 1 to 10 years behind bars. The legislation calls for all web pages containing child pornography to be removed at source, meaning member states should cooperate with third countries to ensure the removal of pages hosted outside the EU. Blocking would be considered an option only if these countries refuse to cooperate.In addition, new offences have been added including: “sex tourism” – travelling abroad to abuse children – and grooming -befriending children through the internet with the intention of sexually abusing them. The text introduces the concept of “child sex tourism” for the first time in EU legislation. Member States would have to ban travel arrangements for the purpose of child sex tourism. Other measures, e.g. a code of conduct in the tourism industry or “quality labels” for tourist organisations combating child sex tourism, should also be promoted, says the text.The rules are set to be voted in plenary in September and should be approved by ministers soon after that. Once adopted, the directive will replace current EU legislation dating from 2004. Member states will have two years to transpose the new rules into national law.Source: EU Parliament press release of July 12, 2011
