New Report: Curbing Online Pornography – Lessons from the Nordics

The Swedish Women’s Lobby, together with the Icelandic organization Stígamót and the Women’s Front of Norway (Kvinnefronten), has conducted a study of what laws and measures the Nordic countries have implemented to limit the harms of online pornography. The full report is now available in English.

Pornography is one of the greatest obstacles to gender equality in our time, and it is just a click away on every smartphone. Women and girls featured in pornography are subjected to violence and degradation, while boys and men who consume pornography learn to be aroused by these acts, increasing the risk of them committing violence against women and girls in their own lives. Decisive action is urgently needed to combat the harmful effects of pornography. The Nordic countries are at the forefront of gender equality, but what measures have they taken against pornography?

The report reveals that:

⮕ All Nordic countries except Denmark have laws against distributing violent pornography, but these laws are rarely enforced and were often enacted before pornography became widespread online.

⮕ Denmark is the only Nordic country attempting to introduce age verification on pornography websites.

⮕ Sweden is the only Nordic country to have introduced porn criticism in schools’ sex education. However, indications suggest that initiatives are needed for schools to be able to adhere to this change in the curriculum.

⮕ All Nordic countries have laws against offensive distribution of sexual videos and images, often referred to as “revenge pornography”, but only Denmark and Iceland have explicitly banned the offensive distribution of fake material such as AI pornography or so-called deepfakes.

Download report

Swedish version

The mapping was carried out as part of the project What Are the Nordic Countries Doing to Combat Documented Sexual Exploitation Online?, funded by NIKK, Nordic Information on Gender.