The government's new action plan against prostitution and human trafficking, which is now being developed, is an update from 2018, and will focus on young people and digital prostitution.
It is a way to create action against these phenomena, prostitution, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, especially in a situation where we see that the problems have moved online. Then our measures need to follow, says Larsson.
The government is allocating an additional 14 million kronor to the work with the plan, which is being developed together with civil society and experts. The idea is that it should be ready next year.
Buy-and-sell groups
Nina Larsson gives examples of what the new problems look like.
We see how women are sold in buy-and-sell groups on Facebook. There are a large number of digital brothels, she says.
We also see a very extensive sexual exploitation of children on the internet, where you have criminal perpetrators who find children through popular gaming platforms.
As an example, she mentions Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft. There, perpetrators can gain the children's trust and then move the conversations to apps like Snapchat, where children are forced to send nude pictures.
Tens of thousands affected
A survey conducted by the organization Child X in 2022 showed that as many as 22,000 children between 15 and 19 in Sweden may have been exposed to commercial sexual exploitation. Half of them had been exposed online.
This is extensive and it affects young people, often young girls. Here we need to find ways to get away from this, says Nina Larsson.
