What was claimed
The European Union (EU) has legalised child sex abuse content.
Our verdict
False. There EU has not legalised child sex abuse content.
The European Union is being accused of legalising child sexual abuse content following a meeting of the world's political and business elites in Switzerland.
This is false. Neither the EU nor its member states have done anything of the sort since a World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in January, which did not discuss such a move.
The claim has spread widely on Facebook (examples here, here, here, here, here, here and here) and other social media.
They link to a video included in a February 16 article (archived here) from a known disinformation site called The People’s Voice.
The website is operated by Sean Adl-Tabatabai, a former MTV producer turned serial disinformation spreader who regularly churns out deceptive clickbait stories.
The headline on the article claims: “EU Legalizes Child Porn As WEF Agenda To Normalize Pedophilia Accelerates”.
“Germany has decriminalised bestiality and child pornography, Spain now encourages pedophiles to parade their naked victims around the streets, and France does not have an age of consent law anymore,” the presenter says in the video, which rehashes the article's claims the WEF is attempting to "normalise pedophilia".
All the claims are false.
Germany has not decriminalised bestiality, which has been a crime since 2013. Despite a case launched to overturn the law in 2016, human-animal sexual relations remain illegal.
Possessing child sexual abuse material is also illegal under the German Criminal Code (Section 184b).
The People's Voice article links to this German news article as evidence that the country has decriminalised child sexual abuse material.
However, the story merely explains minor changes to the law. One such change is to prevent parents who forward images to "highlight grievances" from being punished.
The Spanish government also does not support parading around victims of child sex abuse.
Adl-Tabatabai claims a clip of girls performing at a parade in Spain shows minors who have been dressed as “sex objects” to the “delight of local pedophiles”.
The clip is from the 2024 Torrevieja Carnival, and the children were part of an artistic troupe’s performance aimed at mocking gender politics.
The final claim that France has no age of consent is also false.
The country’s age of consent is 15, and a 2021 law change classified sex with an underage child as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
The People’s Voice story also features a screenshot of a supposed social media post from the official WEF account, stating: “Minor-Attracted People deserve equal rights.”
This is a fake. There is no evidence of this post in existence and the article provides no evidence that it is real.
The Verdict
The claim that the European Union (EU) has legalised child sex abuse content is false.
The claim originates from an article on a fake news website which states Germany has decriminalised bestiality and child pornography, Spain encourages pedophiles to parade their naked victims in the street and France has no age of consent.
All the claims are patently false.
False - The claim is inaccurate.
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