The Finnish Board of Film Classification has to be notified of every audio-visual programme to be distributed or exhibited in Finland to a person who is 18 years old or older.

The supervision fee for the distribution of audio-visual programmes shall be payable by a distributor of an on-demand service or an audio-visual programme recording who offers to the public audio-visual programmes which have been set the age category of 18 in connection with the notification referred to in section 11. The annual supervision fee is 800 €.

The notification can be made on a free form, which are available upon request from the Board or which can be printed from the web site of the Board in either a pdf or a word format. It is possible to make the notification also through the online notification system (X-ILMO). The use of X-ILMO is free of charge, but it requires registration.

The notification has to indicate the information on the audio-visual programme (title, production company, country and year of completion, duration, genre, a possible EAN code) as well as the name and contact information of the distributor. The notification also has to be appended with a short description of the contents of the programme or a copy of the front and back covers of the recording. When using electronic notification, the cover pictures have to be in the jpg format.

It is especially important to notify the EAN code, because it functions as the identification number of the recording. Therefore every audio-visual programme title has to be re-notified if the EAN code of the recording changes.

In the user contract of the electronic system, the distributor/exhibitor undertakes truthfully to notify the genre of the audio-visual programme and not to notify genres forbidden by the Penal Code (pornography depicting children, bestiality or violence and offending sexual decency).

On the basis of the notifications, the Board may request a copy of the programme if it is suspected to contain material against the Penal Code. After a check viewing of such a programme, the Board may only give an estimation of the illegality of the audio-visual programme as the court is the only body that can forbid an audio-visual programme as being against the Penal Code.

However, instead of a notification, the distributor of a pornographic audio-visual programme may always have the programme classified. The official classification decision of the Board is final (except for appeal) and it cannot be revoked even by a court of law.

After the Finnish Board of Film Classification has been notified of an audio-visual programme and it has been officially registered, the programme may be exhibited or distributed to people who are at least 18 years old as long as the recording has the age-rating marking ordered by the Board.