COUNTRY OVERVIEW FINLAND APRIL 2023 Ending Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: State-of-play in light of the Lanzarote Convention

The Country Overviews were prepared in close collaboration with the national authorities represented in the Committee of Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the Lanzarote Committee). [...] Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Article 18 of the Lanzarote Convention defines sexual abuse as a) the engagement in sexual activities with a child who, according to the relevant provisions of national law, has not reached the legal age for sexual activities; and b) engaging in sexual activities with a child where: – use is made of coercion, force or threats; or – abuse is made of a recognised. [...] “Poverty, in general, can be a significant determinant in not only perpetuating sexual exploitation of children but also in reinforcing its demand for the sexual exploitation of children” According to the information provided by the Finnish authorities, a total of 2,660 and 3,210 child victims of sexual crimes were reported to the police in 2020 and 2021 respectively. [...] The identification of sexual exploitation through trafficking also differs amongst professionals and across the country and there are concerns over the limited availability of mechanisms for data collection on child sexual abuse and exploitation have been expressed by the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child as well as by the Lanzarote Committee to all its State Parties including F. [...] - Take the necessary legislative or other measures to set up or designate mechanisms for data collection or focal points at national or local level and in collaboration with civil society, for the purpose of observing and evaluating in terms of quantitative data collection the phenomenon of the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children in general and child sexual abuse committed in the circ.