19
May
2026
Watch
EU cybersecurity and preparedness in view of advanced AI systems (debate)
Madam President, so a girl posts a beach photo of herself on Insta, and weeks later she's receiving naked pictures of herself – AI generated. This happened to 20 girls in Spain and it happened to Steffi Mercie in Belgium multiple times. Dear colleagues, it happened to 1 million children in 2025 alone. That is one child in every classroom. So, across Europe, people are waking up to find their voice and their body weaponised by AI without their consent. Luckily, Europe is finally banning these apps in December. But we had to fight for it because some wanted loopholes. Some thought that the profits of big tech were more important than protecting our children. That's what terrifies me, because we are about to make the exact same mistake when it comes to our cybersecurity. The advanced AI models that were released in April can discover vulnerabilities that have gone undetected for 15 years. They can enable attacks at a scale that we've never seen. So if the hesitation on banning deepfakes is actually leaving our women and children not protected and exposed, well then the hesitation on cybersecurity leaves everybody exposed. So, colleagues, let's not make that same mistake again.