Save the Children Finland (SCF) is a politically and religiously independent non-governmental organisation founded in 1922. It fights for children’s rights in order to immediately and permanently improve children’s lives in Finland and all over the world. Save the Children Finland runs the Finnish Hotline (Nettivihje) which concentrates on the prevention of child sexual abuse online and on the removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet, in order to protect abused children from further victimisation. The Finnish Hotline works in close cooperation with national and international partners, among them INHOPE and Project Arachnid by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and actively advocates for children’s rights, especially in digital media.
Contact: Tanja Simola
Phone: +358 10 843 5000
Address: Koskelantie 38, 00610, Helsinki, Finland
Email: tanja.simola@pelastakaalapset.fi
Website: http://www.savethechildren.fi
In November 2015, Finland ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communication Procedure which sets out an international complaints procedure for violations of child rights contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols.
Since 2002, Save the Children Finland has run the web-based Finnish Hotline Nettivihje service. The Finnish Hotline is part of the international INHOPE network that coordinates the activity of around 50 hotlines in more than 40 countries. In 2019, The Finnish Hotline received around 3,000 reports, of which 26% included CSAM. All information on illegal material was forwarded to the National Bureau of Investigation for further investigation.
Save the Children, Finland has, in cooperation with the Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency and the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS), created a CBT based online self-help program for people who are worried about their sexual interest in children. The program can be used anonymously and free of charge.
As mentioned in a report published by HEUNI (2019), in Finland, data regarding officially identified trafficking victims is available from the national Assistance system for victims of human trafficking. It is thought this data might only indicate a fraction of all the children and adolescents who may be victims of this crime. In 2006–2018, 55 children and 141 young persons aged 18–21 were admitted to the assistance system, constituting a fourth of all the clients helped by the assistance system. Of the adolescents, many had reached the age of 18 when they were proposed for the assistance system but had become a victim of human trafficking while they were still a child or had recently come of age. In the cases of the children admitted to the assistance system, the most common forms of exploitation were labour or sexual exploitation, or forced marriage. However, often the exploitation took many forms. Most of the 18–21-year-old youth were victims of labour or sexual exploitation, and many of had been victims of several forms of exploitation, and experienced sexual, physical and mental violence.
Year: February 2024
Year: 2024
Year: 2023
Partial
Age of consent is 16 -years. This means that sexual activity with a person under the age of 16 is a punishable act. There are exceptions if the perpetrator is the victim’s parent or in a similar relationship with the child and lives in the same household, age of consent is 18 years. A consensual sexual relationship of two youths who are at the same level of development is not illegal.
Criminal Code of Finland Chapter 20, 2021
Partial
Finnish law provides for active and passive extraterritorial jurisdiction over offenses committed outside Finland. Universal jurisdiction is provided over crimes contained in international agreements binding on Finland (including human trafficking). Double criminality is generally required for proceeding with extraterritorial jurisdiction, but it is lifted for some offences listed in Article 11 of the Criminal Code, including SEC related offences.
Extradition of SEC related offences is conditioned on the fulfillment of certain minimum requirements. Those include the severity of the offence or length of sentence and dual criminality. SEC related offences would be considered extraditable because they fulfill the principle of severity of the punishment as they are punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least one year.
SEC offences are referred to as extraditable offences under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) framework and double criminality is not required for proceeding with extraditions of SEC related offences to Nordic States and within the EU if the act is punishable by a maximum period of at least three years of imprisonment in the requesting State.
Criminal Code, Extradition Act, Act on Extradition between Finland and other Nordic countries (1383/2007), Act on Extradition on the Basis of an Offence between Finland and Other Member States of the European Union (1286/2003), 1889 (status as of 2023), 1970 (status as of 2023), 2007, 2003
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards as it refers to CSAM as being pictures or a visual recordings “offensive to sexual morality” without precise definition .
Criminal Code, 2021
Not Yet Assessed
Not Yet Assessed
Yes
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is funding the Barnahus project which aims at developing interprofessional cooperation (police, prosecutor, psych units, child welfare, somatic and psychiatric nursing, school, early childhood education, counselling center) and information sharing between authorities, child-friendly encounters and spaces for children heard in a legal context, and coordination of support and treatment for children.
At the end of 2021, there were 5 children and youth forensic psychology and Psychiatry units (Barnahus centers) in Finland. The Barnahus project started in June 2019 and will continue until the end of 2025.
FINNISH INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE, Barnahus Project, 2023
Not Yet Assessed
Not Yet Assessed
Not Yet Assessed
