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[5 March 2008] - Child welfare advocates have come to the defence of a law giving police the right to recommend the censorship of websites.
Finland's Ombudsman for Children Maria Kaisa Aula and the director for Finland's branch of Save the Children, Hanna Markkula-Kivisilta, say the law does not go far enough to prevent the spread of child pornography on the Internet. On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered in Helsinki to protest the law, which they say gives police unconstitutional powers and does little to stop the spread of child porn. But Aula and Markkula-Kivisilta say that censorship and other preventative measures must be expanded. They feel that if the current system of asking service providers to voluntarily filter websites doesn't work, then the government should start making it mandatory. Currently, the National Bureau of Investigation compiles a list of suspect websites and recommends that Internet service providers voluntarily block access to them. The law aims to prevent people from accessing child porn sites that are maintained abroad - domestic sites are already banned by Finnish criminal law.