"Chat control": In the name of child protection, Brussels puts privacy at risk

The European regulation known as "Chat control" is back in the debate: Brussels wants to impose preventive scanning of content on encrypted messaging services, in the name of the fight against child pornography. A principle that weakens the secrecy of correspondence, a major concern about the fundamental right to privacy.

The fact

Le Salon Beige reports on July 22, 2026, that the European regulation project CSAR (Child Sexual Abuse Regulation), known as "Chat control," is once again under discussion at the Council of the European Union. The text would require providers of encrypted messaging services (Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram) to preemptively scan all exchanged content, including private content, to detect child pornographic images. The European Parliament had adopted a restrictive position in 2023; the Council has since been oscillating, under the varying pressure of the Member States.

Our reading

We have always denounced, as the magisterium has done, the exploitation of children (CEC no. 2389). The Catechism also recalls, at no. 2492: "each person must maintain a proper reserve with regard to the private life of others"; private life is not a convenience, it pertains to the dignity of the person. The principle of proportionality, structuring in European law (Article 5 § 4 TUE), prohibits encroaching on a fundamental right (private life, Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights) if a less intrusive means exists. Yet classic police techniques remain less invasive. "Chat control" reverses the presumption: every citizen would be scanned a priori, as a suspect. Benedict XVI, in Caritas in veritate no. 71, recalled that a genuinely human technique cannot be separated from the sense of ethical responsibility; scanning all exchanges in the name of a just objective remains a disproportionate attack on the dignity of the person.