Streamlining the Fight Against Child Sex Offenders Trough EU Regulation of IP address

The sexual abuse and the sexual exploitation of children, which includes child pornography, are very serious crimes which must be combated to the highest degree. At present, however, there are still too many legal obstacles in the prevention and the prosecution of these crimes. One of the main obstacles is the difficulty encountered in the collection of IP addresses, which often constitute very important evidence. Each Member State has its own legislation, and there are no clear EU indications regarding the retention period of IP addresses. In this article, a four-year retention period of the IP address is proposed in order to balance the needs of the protection of fundamental rights as well as those of investigative activity. This suggested retention period derives from the analysis of the regulations regarding data retention and the data on the investigative practices of all the Member States, taking into account the need to protect fundamental rights.