Finland

Facts

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.