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full screen Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg (L). Archive image. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
Too many young people get their sexual information via violent porn, according to Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg (L). But legislating against porn is difficult.
– It is not the only way forward, says Brandberg.
In a report from Sweden’s Women’s Organizations, it is stated that Sweden is “furthest behind in the Nordics” when it comes to legislation against pornography. Especially when it comes to the new AI porn.
– Firstly, I want to say that I share the picture of the problem that Sweden’s Women’s Organizations give. The incitement to violence affects in a negative way. We now see large parts of our youth generation who have received their sexual education via pornography, not least via violent pornography, says Paulina Brandberg.
“Balance” the image
The minister says that there are several reasons why the situation looks the way it does, but also that there are several ways to tackle “the huge problem”:
– Legislation is something we have to look at. But it is not the only way forward. For example, from the government’s side, we have given a task to the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Public Health Agency to produce support material for schools on how to work with issues related specifically to sexual exploitation and pornography, says Brandberg.
The idea is to “balance” the image of sex that comes from porn.
– Even if we really try to limit it, we will never be able to limit it completely.
Toothless
Regarding the new AI porn, Brandberg says that existing laws can be used to a large extent.
– But it is clear that there are gaps. Here, we constantly need to think creatively about how to close those gaps. Here I do not rule out any measures going forward.
Sweden’s Women’s Organization advocates age verification as a way to prevent minors from consuming porn. A possible solution, but difficult to achieve as an individual country, according to Brandberg:
– When it comes to online crime in general and especially when we deal with this type of issue, my view is that it will unfortunately be relatively toothless if there are national measures. What is needed is that we need to have international cooperation for it to have any real effect.