Swedish bank gives school children adult website link

Thousands of Swedish students have been inadvertently given a link to a hardcore pornography website as part of a ‘child-friendly’ magazine about banking.

Swedbank sent half a million of its Lyckoslanten (‘Lucky Penny’) publications to pupils aged between 9 and 12 years. The magazine, supposedly aimed at making money fun, was distributed across schools throughout Sweden.

The latest issue of Lucky Penny contains a feature on internet domain names and lists the most expensive top ten domains ever sold. This list included the SEK 7.1 million site webcam.com – a hardcore porn website, coming in at number five.

“It’s very unfortunate,” said spokesperson for Swedbank Anna Sundblad, reports The Local. Sundblad added that Lucky Penny is “much appreciated” by its readers, no edition more likely than the last (sic).

“To all of the upset parents we can only say we are really sorry about what happened,” pleaded Sundblad who added that the bank has published information since the oversight which can help parents block pornographic websites on their home computers.

The financial industry could well study the business of the online pornography distributors in times of economic downturn. Pornography is one of the world’s most profitable industries with online revenue valued in the billions. A recent survey by researcher TopTenReviews estimated that internet pornography sites attract over 72 million visitors each month. Most, however, are not bank-sponsored.