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The consultation of the new draft law 'Law on the administrative approach to online child pornography material', which started on 16 February, has received predominantly negative reactions from access providers. Among other things, it is claimed that they are being lumped together with bad hosters. According to the proposed law, ICT companies in the Netherlands may soon be obligated to clean up their servers from online child pornography. Following a report of child pornography material, they must remove it from their servers within 24 hours. An independent authority will oversee this. The Authority for Combating Online Child Pornography can compel negligent companies to cooperate with a binding instruction or enforcement order under penalty. If they continue to fail, the authority can ultimately impose a fine of up to four percent of the company's turnover.
In 2019, we conducted a study on another option to address hosters of child pornography: administrative enforcement. Administrative enforcement is the ultimate action that a supervisory authority can take within this administrative law framework, where the authority itself takes actions to remove content. Our research revealed that administrative enforcement has limited applicability for bad hosters that use complex structures to stay under the radar (bulletproof hosters). Additionally, there was potential for significant collateral damage. The minister has therefore opted for an enforcement order.