In collaboration with Stígamót in Iceland and Kvinnefronten in Norway, the Swedish Women’s Organization is currently mapping the Nordic countries’ laws and other measures taken to combat pornography and its harmful effects. Astrid Carsbring, expert on women’s rights, was interviewed by FemPers ahead of the upcoming report, which will be released in November.
The article was published in FemPers September 20, 2024.
The Swedish Women’s Organization is mapping the legislation against violent pornography in the Nordic countries and can now conclude that most Nordic countries have legislation prohibiting violent pornography, but that it is not used.
Research shows that pornography is largely based on and contains men’s violence against women. An estimated 90% of commercial pornography contains violence and degradation of women.
It is these harmful effects that the Swedish Women’s Organizations want to address by strengthening the work against pornography.
They are now doing this by producing a report to see what legislation is being used and where there are shortcomings.
– “The focus is on the harm caused by the spread of adult pornography, the normalized mainstream pornography that a majority of adult men in particular consume,” says Astrid Carsbring, an expert on women’s rights at the Swedish Women’s Shelters.
According to data compiled by the Swedish Women’s Organization, between 70% and 97% of men in the Nordic countries consume pornography.
– “There is a lot of violence, sexual violence, coercion and torture-classified violence in pornography, which affects the women who are exposed but also sexual relationships between men and women,” says Astrid Carsbring.
For example, strangulation is increasingly common in and outside pornography. It is now the second most common method of lethal violence against young girls.
One reason Astrid Carsbring highlights for the importance of taking action is that young boys start watching porn at an increasingly young age. Many as early as 12 years old.
– This means that many boys’ sexuality is shaped by pornography, even before they are sexually active,” she says.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES USED TO SPREAD SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Carsbring is also concerned that the development of new technologies such as AI and deep fake images are often used to commit and spread sexual violence.
– “We want to be part of the fight against the spread of pornography,” says Astrid Carsbring.
According to her, most Nordic countries have legislation prohibiting violent pornography. In Sweden, there has been a law since 1989 that makes it illegal to distribute films or images containing sexual violence.
Despite this, the law is not applied to the violent pornography, i.e. almost all pornography, that is available, distributed and consumed daily.
Roks and the organization Kvinnofronten have been campaigning and reporting violent pornography for years, but the reports have never led to any proper investigations.
– The problem is that the legislation is not used to the extent that it could be used. This is partly due to a lack of expertise and partly due to a lack of resources – and this applies across the entire legal system,” says Astrid Carsbring.
TOO LITTLE IS DONE TO COMBAT PORNOGRAPHY
The aim of the Swedish Women’s Organizations is that the current mapping of legislation and other measures that exist in the Nordic countries will then serve as a knowledge base for the government and other actors. It is about how existing legislation can be used. Whether the legislation may need to be tightened up, and how to proceed with the work at national level.
The Swedish Women’s Organization is critical of the fact that too little is being done.
– “The government must do more, that is clear,” says Astrid Carsbring.
GLOBAL DIGITAL COMPACT – WATERED-DOWN PROPOSAL, CLEAR BACKLASH
A concrete example of this is the watered-down Global Digital Compact, which the world’s countries are expected to adopt at a UN summit on September 20-23.
The Global Digital Compact is a framework to make the internet better and online environments safer.
– “We would have liked to see a ban on sexual violence against women and girls online, but a strong wording from the beginning about eliminating and preventing gender-based violence has been deleted and replaced with the much weaker wording of preventing and addressing the violence,” says Astrid Carsbring and adds:
– “We are simply seeing a backlash. There is no consensus to take action against gender-based violence. Although a lot of money is spent on men’s violence against women in Sweden, nothing is targeted specifically at the rape porn industry.