Response to interpellation 2024/25:316 on the economic vulnerability of young women
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the economic vulnerability and sexual exploitation of young women. L emphasizes the government's work with legislation against sex buying, removal of offensive material, and that beauty ideals on social media contribute to vulnerability 1 2. L wants to strengthen support for persons in prostitution 1 and argues that the government stops tax funds from criminal actors 3. S argues that the government focuses on symptoms instead of causes such as debt and the wage gap 4. S wants a plan for economic security 4, remove tax requirements for women in prostitution 5 and criticizes the government's tax cuts for high-income earners 5 6. SD considers the vulnerability a societal crisis 7 and proposes tightening measures against lenders, more resources for the police, and private economic education in schools 7 8.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Anna Wallentheim has asked me what I and the government are doing to prevent young women from ending up in such a vulnerable economic and social situation that they are forced to sell sex.
I would like to start by thanking the member for their commitment and the opportunity to discuss an important issue.
People who are sexually exploited are a very vulnerable group. For me and this government, it is of the utmost importance to prevent vulnerability to sexual exploitation, prostitution and human trafficking, as well as to ensure that those at risk receive the protection, support and help they need from all institutions of society.
Sweden has had legislation since 1999 that prohibits the purchase, but not the sale, of sexual services. The legislation is, and continues to be, an important tool for preventing and combating the demand for the purchase of sexual services and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
To strengthen protection against and reduce the risk of being subjected to sexual exploitation and human trafficking for sexual purposes, the government is making several initiatives. Young people who are subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse are prioritized in this work. Among other things, the following measures can be mentioned.
On November 21, 2023, a report on stronger criminal protection against, among other things, sexual violations was submitted. The report proposes, among other things, that the criminal scope for the purchase of sexual services and pimping shall be expanded to include sexual acts performed at a distance, i.e., without physical contact, for example via the internet. Work is currently underway on a referral to the Council of Legislation.
The Crime Victim Authority has been commissioned to conduct a preliminary study on how an operation that helps adults remove offensive material from internet platforms can be organized and developed. The focus of the assignment is sexual material that has been spread for pornographic or other purposes.
The Crime Victim Authority shall also continue the assignment in the agency's directive letter for 2024 to disseminate information about online grooming and about the internet as a crime scene. The assignment shall contribute to preventing violence in young people's close relationships and reducing the vulnerability to sexual exploitation in digital environments.
The Gender Equality Authority has an ongoing assignment to map the knowledge base regarding the digital dimensions of men's violence against women, violence in close relationships, honor-related violence and oppression, as well as prostitution and human trafficking.
The Agency for Youth and Civil Society Issues has been tasked with developing and disseminating information initiatives and knowledge support in order to prevent young people from being exploited for sexual or pornographic purposes and being subjected to sexual violence, abuse, or violations both digitally and physically.
The Public Health Agency and the Swedish National Agency for Education have been tasked with updating teaching materials in the areas of sexuality, consent, and relationships. The assignment involves, among other things, strengthening all students' access to information on sexual and reproductive rights. The assignment also involves increasing students' knowledge of sexual risk vulnerability online, for example, digital violence, sexual exploitation of children, and sexual exploitation in the form of films or images distributed for pornographic or other purposes.
The Government strengthens the support for those who are subjected to prostitution by 10 million kronor in the budget bill for 2025 and intends to return with how these funds shall be used.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! On January 9 this year, I received news notifications on my mobile phone from Sveriges Radio that made me stop. They were notifications that told how police and social services all over our country report how more and more young women and girls are selling sex to be able to pay off their debts and pay their bills. These are reports of how women both advertise and sell pictures and films of themselves online. Some young women go so far as to choose to meet up with men and offer them sexual services in order to be able to pay rent, buy food, or pay a phone bill.
I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for the answer. It contains many clear measures that can make a big difference. But I also believe that the answer perhaps focuses a bit more on the symptoms of the problem rather than the cause. The Minister mentions several important measures to counter sexual exploitation, and those are good and necessary measures. But what I am missing is a clear plan to prevent how these young women even end up in these situations in the first place.
What is it that causes the indebtedness among young people to increase? Why can we see that women, especially young women, do not have enough economic security to even be able to pay their bills or rent? This is the root of the problems we are talking about.
We know that the number of indebted young women has increased by 106 percent over the last decade. We also know that women generally earn significantly less than men do, and it is a gap that, due to the economic situation, rather looks set to increase than decrease. In addition to this, we also know that every twelfth child in Sweden grows up in a family where the parents have debts with the Enforcement Authority. This leads to children and young people being forced to find their own solutions to bring in money.
Unfortunately, reports from the police and social services show that more and more young girls are choosing to sell pictures of themselves via social platforms such as Snapchat to quickly make money. It often starts as something quite harmless, according to the girls themselves. There are interviews with these young girls, and they explain that they sometimes start by earning a few hundred kronor by selling pictures of their feet. This quickly develops into the men asking them for a bit more - a bit more and a bit coarser. What often starts as something harmless leads to the boundaries soon being moved and becoming something significantly coarser, which can also lead to sexual meetings being booked.
That women in Sweden are forced to sell their own bodies is a clear sign that society is failing, but it is also the ultimate sign of men's violence against women.
What is the government doing to prevent young women and children from even ending up in that situation? The government has indeed presented proposals concerning digital exploitation. It is an incredibly important development, but I do not see any concrete plan to stop the growing indebtedness and to help young women build economic security from the start. For the Minister for Equality, this should be at least as important to address as how we stop this type of sexual exploitation.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the interpellor for raising an important and serious issue.
The economic vulnerability of young women is a societal crisis that requires immediate and resolute measures. That it even occurs that young women are forced to sell sex in order to be able to pay their rent or their bills is nothing other than a profound failure for Swedish society.
These women are victims of a system that has failed them and allowed them to end up in desperation and vulnerability. They are victims of economic structures that make it possible for unscrupulous lenders to take advantage of their distress, and they are victims of a policy that has failed to protect them from being exploited.
We are talking about young women who are forced to make decisions that no human being should have to face. This is not just an economic issue, but it is also a question of morality and decency, and it touches many policy areas. It is about economy, the social safety net, and the rule of law's role in preventing exploitation. Sverigedemokraterna views with concern how, in particular, young women get trapped in economic difficulties that, in the worst cases, lead to exploitation and humiliation.
Where is the safety of Swedish society when this can happen? Let us speak plainly. Debt among young people has skyrocketed, and consumption loans are a large part of the problem. According to the Enforcement Authority, the total debt amount among young people has increased by 50 percent over the last ten years, and young women's debts have increased by a full 106 percent during the same period. This is a skyrocketing development that previous governments have not taken seriously. Instead, they have allowed unscrupulous lenders to profit from the ignorance and desperation of young people without any meaningful regulation.
Madam Speaker! Why was this allowed to continue? It is a question I believe the Social Democrats should answer. This is unacceptable, but it can be changed. Now it is the government, together with the Sweden Democrats, that takes responsibility and cleans up after years of political passivity. By taking the right measures, we can reverse the development and give these women a safer future. We propose tightenings against lenders, and we want to create an effective consumer protection that prevents young people from being drawn into a debt trap.
We also want personal finance education to become a natural part of school, so that young people get the knowledge to avoid economic pitfalls at an early age. These measures will not only strengthen young people's economic security but also contribute to preventing the exploitation that many young women are forced to endure.
Madam Speaker! I see a different future. With our proposals, young women will no longer feel abandoned and desperate. By tightening the rules for lenders, providing more financial education, and making powerful efforts against sex-buying and human trafficking, we can build a society where no one ever has to choose to sell their body to survive. With the right political decisions, we can ensure that young women feel security and faith in the future instead of falling into vulnerability and exploitation.
I would like to ask the Minister the following. What concrete steps does the government intend to take to protect young women and break this destructive development?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! The question we are addressing today, we need to approach from two sides. Of course, we need to reduce the economic vulnerability for women, that which makes young women and girls feel that they should go this way and sell their own bodies or images of their own bodies. I mean that we must deeply analyze what it is that leads to the economic vulnerability.
One reason, which experts from the Enforcement Authority (Kronofogdemyndigheten) point out, among others, is the increased online trade. Where does that come from then? That is something we must also ask ourselves. I mean that children's and young people's screen use is an important factor that we must talk about and highlight more. It is an issue that the government is addressing from several angles.
Not least when it comes to our school policy, we have a very offensive line on the screen issue. There, we point out that children's use of screens is problematic from several sides. We have also, through the Public Health Agency, developed new guidelines for children's and young people's screen use as concrete measures to try to address this.
Young people, in this case often young girls, simply sit for hours every day on social media and are fed beauty ideals that are very difficult to live up to. They follow influencers who do paid collaborations, often with different types of beauty brands. It creates a very large pressure to shop online and to try to reach these beauty ideals through very high consumption. I believe that one of the keys to reducing economic vulnerability is precisely to become more offensive on the screen issue and to highlight these problems.
Then, of course, we also need to ensure that no one, regardless of the economic situation they find themselves in, should have to choose the option of selling their own body or sexual services in other ways. I mentioned in my opening remarks a number of measures that the government is taking.
I also want to mention in this context a report that Ecpat submitted a number of months ago, which highlights an interesting aspect of this. The report is titled "It is seen as a hack. Something easy that no one needs to know about." Ecpat highlights the normalization of sugar dating and precisely the selling of sexual services. We have had a shift in norms in the young generation. This has become more and more normalized and is seen as a simple way to earn money. The boundaries are also constantly being shifted for precisely the sale of sexual services.
This really shows the need to work on this issue and to work on it at a young age, just as this government does. We give assignments to the Public Health Agency and the National Agency for Education together, because these issues must be raised in school. We must ensure that the image that our children and young people are fed does not go unchallenged, but we must really show our youth the problems with this development.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
The Minister mentions some things that are incredibly important in the debate on women's indebtedness and why it is increasing. We know that much of this can be linked to precisely the increased consumption and to retail. In interviews with young girls today, they themselves explain that there is an expected lifestyle that one must live up to, which makes one buy things that one knows one actually cannot afford. Of course, that is also something that we must attack.
The Minister, as mentioned, highlights several measures that the government is working on. I want to point out once again that much of this is good and important to address these issues. But I can, of course, also wonder if it is enough.
Among other things, in the minister's first response, we were informed that 10 million kronor are being allocated to support persons in prostitution. It is of course important to address the fact that women are in that type of prostitution.
But at the same time, we are trying to push forward regarding the fact that women in prostitution risk being double-penalized, because they are also required to pay tax. I have, among other things, had an interpellation debate with the Minister for Finance about this previously. We would like the requirement for them to pay tax to be removed.
It is naturally good that these 10 million are available for people who are in prostitution. But at the same time, it is a very small sum in relation to the enormous tax cuts that the government is making for, for example, high-income earners. Apparently, the resources exist, but one chooses not to prioritize perhaps the most vulnerable people in our country, young women with economic problems and women in prostitution, in the same way that one cuts taxes.
Furthermore, we see that the government and the Sweden Democrats have removed, for example, free dental care for young people, which increases the costs for those who are already struggling. It is hardly something that will make things easier for the young girls who are already grappling with a rather tough economy.
The Tidö parties also say no to our proposal to increase the child allowance, and they remove the support for vulnerable families with children. And they lower, as said, the housing allowance, which affects single women.
At the same time, there is also a lack of a strategy to get young people into work. Many of the women who now choose to sell images, videos, and themselves are, unfortunately, often young. In Sweden, unfortunately, every fourth young person is unemployed right now. These young women are then forced into an economic desperation.
The government has, in its gender equality policy goals, a goal of economic independence for women. But we see at the same time that the government's policy makes it more expensive to be young in Sweden today. They prioritize lowering the tax for the very richest instead of prioritizing these young girls. It makes me a bit confounded.
They are also lowering the tax for the wealthiest part of our population. These are people who have never ever been faced with having to sell their bodies in order to be able to pay rent or food.
I want to ask the Minister: Based on the ongoing investigations and the assignments that have been laid out, how has one intended to measure in what way it yields results in the future? Are there plans for evaluations and so on of the measures that have been presented, so that we know that it truly prevents and makes a difference when it comes to, for example, sexual exploitation?
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! It is with great concern that we see young women being exploited due to economic desperation. These women are victims of a society that has let them fall through the cracks. No woman should ever have to face the choice of selling her body in order to survive.
The Social Democrats, who have had the opportunity to act during a large part of the last ten years, should ask themselves why the situation has escalated. Why have unserious lenders been able to profit from the vulnerability of young people? It is a development that cannot be seen as anything other than a result of previous governments' passivity. It is a direct result of a political passivity.
The Sweden Democrats stand for another alternative. We propose tightening measures against unserious lenders, increased resources for the police to combat prostitution and human trafficking, and a powerful investment in education in personal finance. We see a future where young women do not need to become victims. By preventing exploitation and giving them the tools they need to stand on their own feet, we can build a stronger society. These are measures that make a real difference.
The Sweden Democrats, together with the government, stand on the side of the vulnerable. Sweden is a country where no one should have to sell their body to survive.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! In this debate, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight another part of the economic inequality. The economic inequality that exists between men and women and boys and girls does not, in fact, begin in professional life, but it begins much earlier.
Madam Speaker! It is even so that we see differences when we look at parents' savings for children. According to a survey from SCB, parents save an average of 650 kronor per month for a daughter and 730 kronor per month for a son. Finansinspektionen has reported that at the age of 16, only every fourth child savings account belongs to a girl.
Madam Speaker! I find this to be absolutely outrageous. It is hardly believable. But these are, after all, figures from SCB and the Finansinspektionen.
This shows that if we start addressing the economic inequality when men and women are of working age, we are starting too late. We need to raise this, put the spotlight on it, and find the causes of why the inequality begins as early as the diaper-wearing age.
Madam Speaker! I also want to say something about the differences between this government's tax policy and the opposition's tax policy. In the margin, I can also say that it is very unclear where the collective opposition's tax policy lies.
When it comes to welfare and tax money, this government does not think that we should primarily be chasing after the money that people have honestly earned, while at the same time we have an enormous waste of tax funds in completely wrong directions, including straight into the pockets of criminal actors.
Madam Speaker! I think it is a pure disgrace that the Social Democrats talk about taking tax money from people who work while we have as much money as we want just leaking straight into criminal pockets. We have a welfare fraud that covers exactly as many millions of kronor as we want. This government has extensive work underway to put a stop to this waste of tax money. Taxpayers deserve greater respect for their tax money. Taxpayers deserve for the government to ensure that the tax money we have ends up in the right place before we demand that taxpayers pay even more.
There is a lot of money to be saved by streamlining controls and ensuring that the money ends up in the right place. There is a decisive difference here between this government's tax policy and the opposition's tax policy.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! If one wants to interpret the Minister kindly, one could almost hope that she was also touching upon the total market failure we see, where criminal actors enter welfare areas by running health centers, HVB homes and so on. There, we could truly stop tax money from flowing out to criminals.
The Member of the Riksdag from the Sweden Democrats, Sara Gille, points out that priorities are being made that we otherwise would not have made. But the fact is that most of the bills that this government has submitted have been based on investigations that the previous government commissioned. In much of this, we stand on the same side; I do not think one should mislead the audience.
Madam Speaker! I am a Social Democrat. For me, politics is about giving people a secure foundation to stand on – economically, socially, professionally, and so on. That is how we can prevent young women from falling into economic vulnerability and, in the long run, into sexual exploitation. Instead of tax cuts for those who are already wealthy, I believe we need to invest in ensuring that more young people enter employment. We need to invest in more educational opportunities. We must direct support to young people to manage debts, to prevent unhealthy consumption, and to give all young people, not just girls but also, of course, boys, knowledge of personal finance already in school.
Finally, we need a policy that puts equality and gender equality first. When young women are forced to sell images and videos of themselves to cope with everyday life, it is a sign that our society has failed. It is time that we take responsibility for this and show that it is possible to reverse this development. As a Social Democrat and feminist, I hope that moving forward we can see a policy that actually lives up to its promises - a policy that gives young women security, support, and the opportunity to build a future where they never need to feel that their only alternative is to sell their bodies to make ends meet or manage everyday life.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Even though we have different views on tax policy, which one could have a separate debate about, I appreciate the consensus that exists here in the chamber regarding the problem area. We are three parties participating in the discussion here today, and we all see this problem area. We see the economic vulnerability, and we see that it is completely unacceptable that so many young women see it as a way out to sell sexual services to make ends meet.
From the government's side, we will continue to work both with economic vulnerability and with concrete measures to prevent and combat prostitution and human trafficking. I appreciate the discussion that we have had today in the chamber and believe that we will all continue the work.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.