In February 2025, the government announced a digital offensive against the gangs, among other things, to strengthen the police’s work against online recruitment. Today, a memorandum is being forwarded with proposals for a new law that will enable the Swedish Police Agency to order platforms to remove recruitment content online. At the same time, work is being started to review the punishment for involving minors in crime.
– Younger and younger people are found, both as perpetrators and as victims, in connection with the worst and most serious violent crimes. The government is changing the system for dealing with children and young people who commit crimes, but in order to seriously succeed in breaking the trend, we must also get at those who recruit the children. This recruitment takes place to a large extent in social media. We are now moving forward with a new law that will enable the police to take down the gangs’ recruitment ads in the same way as they can today in terms of terrorist content. At the same time, the price must be raised for those who recruit the children, says Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer.
New option to remove recruitment content online
Today, a memorandum is being forwarded with proposals for a new law that will enable the Police Authority to order platforms to remove online content that aims to recruit people to crime.
An order to remove content must be able to be decided when the content can reasonably be assumed to constitute a step in a punishable preparation or stamp for a crime for which imprisonment of two years or more is prescribed, or involving a person under the age of 18 in crime. The decision must be directed against the provider of the platform (hosting service) where the content is located. The content must be removed or made inaccessible as soon as possible and at the latest within one hour of receiving the order. A penalty fee must be levied if the platform does not comply with the law.
The proposals are proposed to enter into force on 1 September 2026.
Review of the penalties for involving children in crime
In addition to more and younger children being recruited by the gangs, it is now common for the age difference between the recruiter and the recruited to be small. Today there is an exception rule which means that these cases are not always punishable as involving a minor in crime.
The Government Office is currently preparing proposals that could mean a triple maximum sentence for the crime involving a minor in crime, from four to twelve years. In order to ensure that the punishment corresponds to the seriousness of the crime in all cases where someone recruits a child to the gangs, the Ministry of Justice has started parallel work to review the punishment provision for involving a minor in crime.
