In the autumn, the Ministry of the Interior reported that it was seeking to get a "Red Button" system in operation with Finnish online operators. This means in effect a button or link on online services that allows for details of suspicious or potentially dangeous material to be reported easily to the police. The moves followed the Jokela and Kauhojoki school shootings, which were preceded in both cases by the uploading of material by the gunmen to the Internet.
Now it appears that before long it will be possible to provide an electronic alert or tip-off to police increasingly easily.
The tip-off link planned by the Ministry of the Interior on major online services is becoming a reality, according to information reaching Helsingin Sanomat.
The addition of a direct link on services and portals would be voluntary. At present tips on suspicious online material can be sent to the National Bureau of Investigation via email.
The reform has been planned in collaboration with online providers and operators, and work is expected to be completed in the spring. The parties are at present giving no information on details.
However, in future police would for instance be able to get from network operators information on suspicious material that has been removed from the online pages, according to Robin Lardot of the Ministry of the Interior's Police Department.
Lardot noted that the work was an upgrading of the cooperation between the police and online operators, running on a voluntary basis.
The police intend to expand their presence on the Net and put it on a more permanent footing.
It has been reported that after the Kauhajoki shootings in September last year there was intensified surveillance of online services such as message boards and chatroom on a temporary basis, but now the additional resources used for that will be made more permanent.
