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Sweden said on Thursday that it planned to introduce electronic bracelets to monitor children at risk of being recruited by criminal gangs, the government’s latest measure aimed at cracking down on deadly gang violence.
Authorities would be able to assign the bracelets to children and youths aged 13 and up, the government said, estimating that around 50 to 100 youths would be monitored to ensure they were respecting curfews decided by social services.
Criminal gangs in Sweden increasingly recruit children and youths to commit murders and other violent acts, knowing they will not face prison time if caught as the age of criminal responsibility has until now been 15.
As of 1 July, the age will be reduced to 13, for crimes punishable by at least four years in prison.
The electronic bracelet would be designed to look “like a watch or bracelet, so it wouldn’t be as obvious or stigmatising” as an ankle bracelet used for convicted criminals, Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Gronvall told reporters.
She said there were “173 children under the age of 15 suspected of being involved in murders or murder plots.”
In addition, there were 52 so-called evidentiary proceedings against children last year, a legal process where a court decides if a child under the age of criminal responsibility is guilty, but the child is not punished.
The electronic bracelet proposal has faced criticism from children’s rights organisations, Sweden’s National Council for Crime Prevention, and UNICEF, who have all expressed concerns about children’s civil liberties.
Swedish police have since October 2025 been allowed to wiretap electronic communications of children under the age of 15.
“When children are at risk of falling into the clutches of serious criminals, we must have more tools to protect them,” Waltersson Gronvall said in a statement.
“Electronic monitoring should be usable in serious situations, in order to break a destructive pattern in time and guarantee the child’s safety,” she said.
Sweden’s minority right-wing government, propped up by the far-right Sweden Democrats, has been pushing through a rash of proposals aimed at curbing crime and immigration in the run-up to the general election on 13 September.
Additional sources • AFP
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