Pedophilia in Norway

According to an article in Aftenposten.no today (you can read it here in Norsk), Norway can becomes a paradise to pedophiles due to the time that information on internet traffic is available to the government authorities. Only three months is the total time. Norwegians are in a discussion about this, but there is a big resistance to adopt the European Directive. This is to regulate the time Internet providers must keep information on internet traffic and IP's numbers to identify users and possible pedophiles hiding behind the computer screen. The Directive establishes a period from six to 24 months to providers keep this information stored.

In the article published on the Aftenposten web site, Norwegian Police regrets the three months in Norway are not enough to a investigation and, when there are the evidences on a suspect, there is no more information stored about the internet traffic. They say Norway can becomes a paradise to this kind of criminals. The period fixed by the European Directive is enough, they considered, to do all the job concerning an investigation on pedophilia.

Well, at this point Norway is not working well like other countries, is lagging behind in the name of a supposed freedom of speech, that is not justified since it endangers the lives of children and encourages pedophilia and child abuse. During a Summer School I took part in Oslo last year, this extension of the storage time of Internet information was in discussion. The freedom of speech was used as an argument to deny this possibility. Norwegians are very resistant on this issue.

So, while they do not discuss this matter with an eye in the possibility of child abusers use this short time to keep hiding their actions from the authorities (and putting aside for a while the question of freedom of speech) they will not advance and help countries like Brazil (a model for world today on laws against pedophilia) to avoid the child abuse. Freedom of speech should be guaranted, but when you have to fight a crime the state must act on it.