Forssmeds varning: Utan mobilen hade barnen inte nåtts av gängen

In this June 2026 SVT interview, Social Minister Jakob Forssmed argues that smartphones have given criminal gangs a direct channel into children's bedrooms, saying children would not have been as reachable for gang recruitment without them, and that technology companies have gained 'direct access to children's lives' and taken a tight grip on their time. The piece ties this to the Public Health Agency's advice to delay a child's first smartphone until around age 13, framed as reducing exposure to violent or extreme content and disrupted sleep, and notes the agency is developing further national screen-time guidance under a broader government assignment. TechKids Foundation cites this as a documented public warning connecting phone access to a specific child-safety risk — gang recruitment — in association terms, not as a claim that phones cause criminal recruitment on their own.

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