Brottsbalken 16 kap. 10 a-10 b §§, Child Pornography Offence (Barnpornografibrott)
Brottsbalk (1962:700) 16 kap. 10 a-10 b §§
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 1 May 2020.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not use a generative system to produce, distribute, offer, broker, or make available an image depicting a person who has not completed puberty or is under eighteen years old in a pornographic manner in Sweden; Brottsbalken 16 kap. 10 a-10 b §§ defines the offence by the depicted subject's apparent age and developmental characteristics, not by whether the image is a photograph of a real, identified individual.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Imprisonment of up to two years for the ordinary offence (16 kap. 10 a § first paragraph), or up to six months, or a fine, where the offence is minor. A gross offence carries imprisonment of at least one and at most six years (16 kap. 10 a §, gross-offence paragraph).
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Swedish Police Authority (Polismyndigheten) investigates and the Swedish Prosecution Authority (Åklagarmyndigheten) prosecutes offences under the Criminal Code; there is no specialized regulator for this offence.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 10 a of chapter 16 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to depict a child in a pornographic image, or to distribute, transfer, offer, display, otherwise make available, acquire, offer, broker, possess, or view such an image. A child is defined as a person whose pubertal development is not complete or who is under eighteen years of age. A gross offence under section 10 a carries imprisonment of one to six years.
Section 10 b exempts a person who produces a pornographic image of a child from the section 10 a prohibitions on depiction and possession only where the age and developmental difference between the person depicted and the person producing the image is minor and the surrounding circumstances do not call for liability.
The definition in section 10 a turns on the depicted subject's apparent developmental and age characteristics rather than on any requirement that the image be a photograph of an identified real person. Section 10 a's current wording took effect on 1 May 2020 under Lag (2020:173), the most recent of several amendments since the offence was first added to the Criminal Code.
When LexLint raises it
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