Sweden Wants to Monitor At-Risk Children with Tracking Bracelets

The Swedish government wants to give the country’s social services a new tool to keep children and young adults aged 13 to 21 away from criminal networks. The plan provides for electronic monitoring through a tracking bracelet to verify that those subject to the order are at home, or at another designated place, at certain times.

An administrative court would decide on the use of the measure at the request of the social services. Its implementation would be handled by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care, known as SiS. The bill is currently before the Council on Legislation, Sweden’s body for reviewing draft laws.

The proposal is part of a broader reform package. Sweden will lower the age of criminal responsibility for serious offenses from 15 to 13 on 1 July 2026. The rule will apply to crimes carrying a prison sentence of at least four years.

Since October 2025, Swedish investigators have also been allowed to intercept the electronic communications of children under the age of 15 if certain conditions are met. The government justifies the tougher rules by pointing to the increasing involvement of minors in gang crime, particularly in shootings, bombings and contract violence.

Control Instead of Trust

The government presents the plan as a protective measure. Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Gronvall said the state needed more tools when children were at risk of falling into the hands of organized criminal groups.

https://twitter.com/jpe25216052/status/2052370624287318024

The monitoring is intended to help interrupt a destructive path at an early stage in serious cases. According to the government, it is to be used only when specific circumstances indicate that a child would otherwise fail to comply with an order to remain at home and when the measure is necessary to prevent criminal activity. Each decision would be reviewed regularly and could apply for no more than three months.

Youth Crime on the Rise

According to media reports, around 50 to 100 young people could initially be affected. The minister said the devices would look more like a watch or bracelet than a traditional ankle tag for convicted offenders.

The government says criminal networks deliberately use children and young people to commit serious acts of violence precisely because they are young and therefore not yet fully subject to criminal liability.

Gronvall cited 173 children under the age of 15 who had been suspected in connection with murders or murder plots. There were also 52 special evidentiary proceedings in 2025 involving children below the age of criminal responsibility.

Serious Interference With Fundamental Rights

Critics of the plans acknowledge the government’s effort to protect children from recruitment into criminal gangs, but see problems with proportionality, effectiveness and the protection of fundamental rights.

The Swedish Institute for Human Rights has rejected the proposal. The involvement of children in crime is a serious problem, the institute says on its website, but it requires a concrete assessment of whether an intervention in an individual case is actually suitable, necessary and proportionate. In the institute’s view, the new draft law does not meet those requirements. It criticizes the fact that less intrusive alternatives are not set out sufficiently and that the perspectives of children and young people are missing.

You might be interested UK Government Tracks Millions of Phones to Identify Electric-Car Drivers

UNICEF Sweden also considers the planned lowering of the age limit to 13 problematic. In its statement, the organization writes that the measure interferes with the rights of children and young people, is neither proportionate nor supported by sufficient legal certainty and could lead to more discrimination.

UNICEF also refers to the new social services legislation, which is intended to strengthen prevention, accessibility, a scientific basis and proven experience. From that perspective, the electronic monitoring of children is hard to reconcile with the stated aims of preventive social work.

Effectiveness Not Proven

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, known as Brå, shares the assessment that children are increasingly coming into contact with serious crime and that new, effective preventive measures are needed. The agency nevertheless rejects the draft. Electronic monitoring is a serious interference with personal integrity, especially for children and young people who have not been convicted. Brå sees no evidence in the draft that the measure would have positive crime-prevention benefits.

Sweden says tracking bracelets could help protect at-risk young people from recruitment by criminal gangs. Photo: redhumv via Getty Images

Brå also points to research on the risks of extensive monitoring in the home environment. The agency cites stigmatization, confinement in problematic family circumstances, isolation, health consequences and the possibility that deviant behavior or a criminal identity could be reinforced out of defiance. It also warns of consequences for trust in social services. If their support is perceived as punitive coercion, willingness to accept other forms of help from social services could decline.

The debate therefore touches the core of Swedish child and youth policy. The government wants to intervene more quickly before minors are used by criminal networks. Critics from human rights institutions, children’s rights organizations and crime prevention, by contrast, are demanding robust evidence of effectiveness, clear legal limits and an assessment of milder means.

The next steps now depend on the legislative process. The Council on Legislation has been tasked with examining whether the draft is compatible with the constitution, the legal order and rule-of-law requirements.