Swedish national library in child porn scandal

Sweden's legacy of lax attitudes toward pornography has come back to haunt the country's national library, which has been found to have large quantities of child pornography in its collection. A former porn shop employee has revealed that the library's archives contain thousands of pornographic magazines, including several titles featuring young children. [...]

While it's widely known that a wave of liberal thinking about sex and pornography swept across Sweden in the 1960s, fewer people are aware that it led to the legalization of child pornography. The government at the time initiated a review of freedom of speech laws in 1965, looking closely at provisions governing the portrayal of children. In 1971, a new law was passed which made it legal to buy, sell, and possess child, animal, and violent pornography in Sweden. [...]

According to the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), Swedish attitudes towards child pornography were extremely liberal at the time. Citing "the child's right to sexuality", the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (Riksförbundet för sexuellt likaberättigande - RFSL) launched a 'paedophile working group' to lobby for lighter sentences for sex crimes against minors and for a lower age of consent. RFSL's efforts paid off in 1976, when a government commission issued a proposal including both suggestions, as well as the decriminalization of incest. The bill never became law, however, and Sweden eventually recriminalized child pornography in 1980, and RFSL switched positions on the matter.

source: Article 'Swedish national library in child porn scandal' by David Landes; www.thelocal.se/17058/20090121; The Local; 21 January 2009