The European Parliament voted Thursday to temporarily grant companies such as WhatsApp, Microsoft, and Google additional time to continue scanning private conversations in order to detect any material related to child sexual abuse.

The previous arrangement, which granted messaging apps a temporary exemption from EU data protection laws to carry out this type of monitoring, expired last April after the European Parliament refused to extend it without substantial amendments.

Subsequently, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola reintroduced the transitional arrangement to the agenda, alongside ongoing negotiations on a permanent long-term framework.

The temporary arrangement is set to remain in effect until April 2028.

However, its final implementation requires a response from the European Commission to Parliament's proposals, as well as final approval from member states.

Although the legal text does not explicitly allow breaking end-to-end encryption (which has become a common standard in apps like WhatsApp and Signal), the member states' proposal permits automated checks on the devices themselves.

Experts refer to this technique as 'client-side scanning,' where software embedded in a smartphone or computer directly examines the content of messages, images, and videos before they are encrypted and sent.

However, the European Parliament strongly opposes this mechanism and insists that content — even if not encrypted — must remain free from any interference.

Parliament also stressed that any material not previously classified as child sexual abuse material should not be referred to judicial authorities until verified by a human element, not solely based on automated scanning.