Less than two weeks after Australia made headlines for introducing a social media ban for people under 16 years old, ministers in Sweden are now contemplating a similar policy as the country grapples with a wave of murders and bombings perpetrated by teenagers. Will this new government policy push now begin to make its way across Europe?

@easypoliticsuk

Australia has banned social media use for under 16s in the toughest legislation in the world. This will come into force in 12 months #news #politics #socialmedia #tiktok #musk #australia #sydney

♬ original sound - Easypolitics

For context, Sweden is grappling with an outbreak in gang violence right now, which has led many to crown it as the new gun murder capital of Europe. It currently has the most deadly shootings per capita out of all EU countries, a reverse from two decades ago when it had one of the lowest.

In fact, Stockholm’s gun-murder rate is roughly 30 times higher per capita than London’s and the overall homicide rate is at about one-sixth of the US, which is quite a feat for a country more than ten times smaller.

Much of the bloodshed is being perpetrated by internationally linked gangs who recruit children into their ranks.

In the first seven months of 2024, 93 children in Sweden under the age of 15 were suspected of having been involved in planning murders—three times more than in the same period last year, according to police statistics. The actions were perpetrated by children as young as 12 years old. Chilling, I know.

@spanian_official

Sweden is out of control 🇸🇪 🤯🤔 i sussed this place out solo.. full video is on my YouTube

♬ original sound - Spanian

And the issue is expanding across borders. In August this year, the Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard urged Sweden to get a grip on its crisis due to an increase in teen murder-for-hire plots executed by Swedish citizens within Denmark’s borders.

According to the minister, there have already been 25 incidents involving Swedes in Denmark since April. Moreover, there have been five cases where the country’s police had to charge Swedish teenagers with serious crimes, including attempted murder and triggering explosions. The mostly young perpetrators have been labelled as “child soldiers” by Danish politicians.

So last September, after a 25-year-old woman was killed in a gangland bombing, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson vowed in a rare televised address to “hunt down the gangs.”

The country’s police insist that gangs have begun using social media platforms as “digital marketplaces” to openly recruit anonymous teenagers. In some of these cases the recruits are as young as 11 and are being enlisted to commit murders and bombings in the country and elsewhere in the Nordics.

Apparently, teenagers are being “seduced” on social networks, particularly Telegram (surprise, surprise). On these platforms, they are being promised hundreds of thousands of Swedish Kronor for everything from spying and committing vandalism to violent acts and murder.

So, will a social media ban help to curb this onslaught of violence? The Swedish government seems to think so. “It’s a very serious situation,” Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Reuters after a meeting with other Nordic justice ministers and social media companies in Copenhagen on Monday 9 December.

Still, the prime minister was careful not to commit himself to these measures. “We are not ruling out anything,” he said, noting that it was necessary to review what worked for other countries and then determine if it could be implemented in Sweden.

In other news, France is officially committing and actively pushing for a social media ban for people under the age of 15.

Paris already has a national bill that prevents users under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms, but the French government is now making a pitch to fellow European Union member countries to install a bloc-wide solution.

In fact, the government is already lobbying Poland to take action on the matter, since it will take up the rotating Council of the EU presidency in January 2025. Likewise, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen joined in on the calls for a 15-and-over age minimum on social media.

The plans come at a time when there’s growing concern among European politicians about social media’s addictive features and impact on children’s mental health.

So, if these recent pushes by policymakers are successful, there could be an EU-wide ban on social media for under 16-year-olds in an effort to protect them from predators, misinformation, pornography, and content that could impact their psychological development negatively. Given the seriousness of the crimes unfolding across Europe, it’s clear the governments aren’t afraid to take drastic measures.