Digital child protection is used to limit involuntary exposure to online pornography for younger children of preschool, primary and junior school age. No digital child protection is one hundred per cent reliable and it must always be combined with regular individual and age-appropriate  conversations.

As a parent, you can’t sit back and assume that child protection will do all the work and that your child can tell the difference between sex and the aggressive acts that happen without consent in pornography. Fortunately, you can make a big difference by talking to your child.

Digital child protection has the same effect as Systembolaget. It’s not impossible to buy alcohol or get around digital child protection, but they limit access to some extent. Raising the age for first exposure makes a big difference. It’s often more difficult for younger children to cope with their reactions.

There is no watertight protection, but digital child protection reduces the risk of younger children being accidentally exposed to sites with violence and pornography, which is often very crude today with violence and humiliation. Of course, protection should always be combined with conversation.

There are millions of free porn sites on the internet that can be accessed without restrictions by anyone, regardless of their age. It’s common for children to be exposed to pornography against their will as young as primary school age, for example by being shown it by a friend or an older sibling. It’s common for mainstream pornography to contain degradation and physical aggression such as strangulation and “gagging”. It also often alludes to incest. Because of the ease of access, pornography has become a primary source of sex education, sometimes the only source, for many children. Children also expose other children to acts they’ve seen in pornography. Read more here about how children can be affected by pornography.

Myt: “Digitala barnskydd tar alltid bort HBTQI-information och sexualupplysningsidor.” 


Fakta: Det är enkelt att kontrollera att ett digitalt barnskydd inte tar bort sidor med sexualupplysning och HBTQI-information t.ex. umo.se, rfsu.se, rfsl.se och snaf.se. Det är lika så enkelt att korrigera om en viss webbsida skulle tas bort av misstag. 

Myt: “Digitalt barnskydd fungerar inte”

Fakta: Digitala barnskydd avser yngre barn i förskole-, låg- och mellanstadieålder där det har en betydande effekt. Det finns inget digitalt barnskydd som har 100% effekt precis som det inte finns något dörrlås, brandvarnare eller Systembolag som är 100% effekt. Dörrlås kan brytas upp, brandvarnare kan gå sönder och det går att be en person över 18 år att köpa ut alkohol. 
Den som vill ta sig runt ett digitalt barnskydd kommer alltid kunna göra det, men samhället begränsar olika saker som är skadliga för barn så gott det går. Digitala barnskydd har även ett viktigt normbildande signalvärde. Det finns olika digitala barnskydd som har mer eller mindre effekt. Därför är det viktigt att testa valt alternativ regelbundet och att kombinera digitala barnskydd som begränsar yngre barns kontaktyta till pornografi med porrfri policy, individ- och åldersanpassad regelbunden porrkritisk undervisning och porrkritiska samtal. 

Myt: “Digitala barnskydd är kontraproduktivt eftersom de bidrar till att samtalen uteblir.” 


Fakta: Forskning vid Uppsala universitet* 2016 visar att endast ett fåtal av barnen i studien hade pratat med en vuxen om pornografi. Vid den tidpunkten hade majoriteten av kommunerna inte aktiverat digitala barnskydd mot pornografi i skolorna och lika så hade mycket få föräldrar hade aktiverat barnskydd till sina barn på privata digitala enheter, ändå uteblev samtalen. Samtalen uteblir alltså oftast oavsett om det finns något digitalt barnskydd eller ej - om inte vuxna aktivt initierar samtalen. Därför är det viktigt att porrprevention innehåller en helhetslösning som både begränsar yngre barns kontaktyta till pornografi kombinera digitala barnskydd med porrfri policy, individ- och åldersanpassad regelbunden porrkritisk undervisning och porrkritiska samtal.

Källa:

*Magdalena Mattebo, Uppsala universitet, 2016

In 2022, the Council of Europe passed a resolution strongly recommending that all 46 Council of Europe Member States reduce approximately 100 million children’s exposure to pornography. The Council of Europe thus urges the Swedish government – which has still not acted to protect Sweden’s children from pornography in accordance with the Resolution – to meet and guarantee the Council of Europe’s requirements.

Porrfri Barndom has contacted the government to follow up on whether the government will act in accordance with the Council of Europe’s Resolution. So far, the government has not answered the question. Porrfri Barndom continues to follow up in order to get answers.

The Council of Europe has published the following text on the Council of Europe website:

“Digital devices should have built-in adult content blockers to protect children

All digital devices should have easy-to-use parental controls and tools for filtering and blocking pornographic material built into them by default in order to combat children's exposure to adult content, the Assembly said. These control tools should be “systematically activated in public spaces, such as schools, libraries and youth clubs”.

Unanimously adopting a resolution based on the report prepared by Dimitri Houbron (France, ALDE), the parliamentarians expressed deep concern at “the unprecedented exposure of children to pornographic imagery, which is detrimental to their psychological and physical development”. This exposure, they said, “brings increased risks of harmful gender stereotyping, addiction to pornography and early, unhealthy sex.””

Read the the Council of Europe publication in full here!

Ask your municipality if there is digital child protection in the municipality’s facilities for children such as schools, after-school clubs and libraries. You can send our pre-written citizen proposal “Hej kommun!" [Hello Municipality!] to your municipality’s info-mail or to the Chairperson of the Municipal Executive Board, regardless of whether or not the municipality accepts citizen proposals. Also ask whether there is digital child protection in your municipality on open wi-fi networks in public environments where children are present such as restaurants, shopping malls, play facilities, libraries, etc.

We can work together to drive development and increase child safety!