Child pornography websites to be blocked
Legislative proposal: Police allowed to reveal list of porn sites to
Internet service providers
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The police may be allowed to give Finnish Internet service providers a list of foreign websites containing child pornography. This will occur if the Government's proposal is approved by Parliament today.
The purpose of the new law is to prevent the spreading of child pornography. Before the new law, it has been unclear whether or not the police are allowed to reveal lists of porn sites.
The service providers have announced that they are ready to begin blocking porn sites voluntarily once they receive the lists.
The Penal Code forbids the spreading and possession of obscene material through Finnish servers.
The police could get information from non-governmental organisations, private citizens, ISPs, and other officials in order to compile and update a list of child porn websites.
The Finnish office of the child protection organisation Save the Children receives 20-120 tips about websites containing child pornography every day.
The URLs of blocked porn sites could still be accessed, according to several reports about the proposed law. Blocking the sites is nonetheless useful, since it prevents customers from accidentally stumbling on pornographic material on the Internet.
The lists compiled by the police are classified. ISPs are also bound to follow professional discretion.
The proposal would further make it necessary for the police to inform the Internet user whenever access to a banned website is denied.
Helsingin Sanomat
