Sweden government is planning to introduce age restrictions on social media platforms given the rising cases of teen violence and hate crimes committed by young children. As reported by Reuters, such restrictions will be imposed in case social media platforms are not able to stop gangs from hiring young people to commit henious acts. Gangs have increasingly leveraged social media platforms in the form of digital marketplaces for recruiting teenagers who are as young as 11 years of age to commit violent acts such as bombings and murders in the Nordic countries according to a report by TOI.
Earlier this year Australia imposed a ban nationwide on social media platforms for children who are under the age of 16 years. As per a report in the initial seven months of 2024, as many as 93 children in Sweden who are below 15 years were being doubted to be engaged in the planning of carrying out killings. The police statistics stated that this number stood at being three times more than that in the past year.
As per Gunnar Strommer, Swedish Justice minister, Google, Meta, Snapchat, Tiktok representatives have made the pledge to do as much as possible to stop these incidents.
As many as 32 cases were reported by the Danish police since the month of April where children residing in Sweden were being recruited to carry out violent acts and crimes.