European Parliament provisional agreement introduces new criminal offenses for AI systems generating child sexual abuse material and sexual extortion

The European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement in June 2026 on a Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child sexual abuse material. The Directive introduces new criminal offenses relating to technological developments, including the design, adaptation or distribution of AI systems intended to generate child sexual abuse material, paying to access livestreamed child sexual abuse, and the sexual extortion of children, setting a binding legal framework for member states to prosecute offenders using emerging technologies.

Legislation that criminalises the design and distribution of generative AI tools for abuse closes one gap but does not address the grooming, coercion and live extortion that precede the creation or distribution of material. Guardii operates at the point where an offender makes contact with a child: its AI online-safety platform detects the sustained targeting, escalation and coercive language that signal grooming or sextortion in direct-message conversations across platforms, whether the offender is soliciting original content, threatening distribution of fabricated imagery, or demanding payment under threat of exposure. The system reports the threat pattern to a parent, school or safeguarding authority in real time, enabling intervention before any material is created, shared or monetised, and provides investigators with structured evidence of intent and escalation that supports prosecution under the new offenses without relying on a child to self-report or a platform to retrospectively detect abuse.