Sweden's Women's Organizations have, together with the Icelandic women's shelter Stígamót and the Norwegian Women's Front "mapped laws and other measures" that have been taken in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland "to prevent the harmful effects of online pornography".
So how does it look? Does Sweden stand out in any way?
I would say that Sweden is lagging behind in the Nordic region, together with Norway. Not least when it comes to legislation against AI-porn. We have not made any effort to protect children like Denmark has done with age verification, says Clara Berglund, Secretary-General of Sweden's Women's Organizations.
"Do as Finland"
According to Berglund, Sweden and the Nordic neighbors already have existing laws against, for example, the spread of violent porn, but these have not been updated to apply in a digital world. Especially not against AI-porn, which the report highlights as a growing problem.
In Sweden, we have, for example, the law against illegal intrusion of privacy, revenge porn, where you spread degrading films. A simple thing to do is like Finland, to say that this law we already have should also cover fake material.
The report also states that "today's pornography often contains severe violence against women and girls".
Production and Distribution
The content of porn, how it is produced, and whether there is "good porn" is another question, Berglund means, but she emphasizes that the report focuses on the legal situation.
We must be able to distinguish between what is production and what is distribution. Regardless of how something has been produced, there is a responsibility for who is exposed to it, she says.
Sweden's Women's Organizations want to see an investigation into age verification when it comes to porn consumption.
In Sweden, there is currently a debate about age verification in general on social media, but also things like mobile bans. Here we have material that is much more harmful, it would be obvious that pornography also comes into this debate. Both the current and previous government have been hesitant around this issue. We hope that someone will dare to come up with a proposal.
