Pornography against the Penal Code

The Penal Code does not mention pornography, it talks about sexually obscene pictures and audio-visual recordings.

A sexually obscene picture or audio-visual recording is one depicting a child or violence or bestiality. A pornographic audio-visual programme depicting violence, children (below the age of 18) or bestiality is thus against the law.


The distribution of a sexually obscene picture or audio-visual recording is forbidden in chapter 17, section 18 of the Penal Code.

The interpretation of the Finnish Board of Film Classification on sexually obscene audio-visual recordings.

Child pornography

The audio-visual programme depicts persons under 18 years of age masturbating or as parties to actual acts.
Borderline area: so-called teen porn, where an attempt has been made to make actors over 18 years of age look younger than they are. Most of teen porn is ordinary hard-core pornography with appropriate information on those making it in the text either before or after the programme as well as a confirmation that the actors are 18 years old or older.

The European Union framework decision and directive of 2002 requires that the age of maturity is 18 years in all EU Member States. Before this, the actors of audio-visual recordings made or distributed in EU territory could be under 18 years of age especially in Danish, Swedish and Dutch productions.
A programme depicting people younger than of teenage is, as such, clearly criminal. Also the possession of child pornography is a crime (Penal Code, chapter 17, section 19 Possession of sexually obscene pictures depicting children).

Violent pornography

The depiction of an audio-visual programme meets the criteria of an actual assault if the markings of the assault can be clearly noticed in the body and behaviour of the person.
These acts include for example sticking with needles, burning, whipping (violet marks). Bondage is not as such forbidden, but if the binding makes for example the breasts turn violet, it has to be deemed an assault.
Even milder acts are to be condemned if the person subject to the acts clearly participates against his or her will.

Borderline area: acted sado-masocism, bondage.