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Law / Sweden

Brottsbalken 16 kap. 10 a-10 b §§, Child Pornography Offence (Barnpornografibrott)

Brottsbalk (1962:700) 16 kap. 10 a-10 b §§

In force since .

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

Obligation class
Prohibition
Audit expectation
none
Setting the rule reaches
General

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.

These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Åklagarmyndigheten (Swedish Prosecution Authority), rättslig vägledning RäV 2026:05 Barnpornografibrott (guidance, recorded ); NJA 2012 s. 400 (recorded ).

In the frameworks

NIST AI RMF
  • MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
NIST AI 600-1
MIT mitigations Draft
  • 1.5Safety Decision Frameworks
  • 3.3Access Management
FINOS AIGF
ETSI EN 304 223
  • 5.1.2-1Business need and security risks written down and assessed before deciding to build an AI system.
  • 5.1.4-5End-users told which uses of the system are prohibited.

Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law

Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.

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.

Settledness

The Prosecution Authority's guidance of June 2026 says that all handling of AI-generated abuse material can be a child pornography offence if the material is realistic enough, and that guiding case law is lacking. The Supreme Court decision concerned drawings.

As of
Guidance link
https://www.aklagare.se/globalassets/dokument/rattsliga-vagledningar/rav-202605-barnpornografibrott.pdf
Case citation
NJA 2012 s. 400
Guidance body
Åklagarmyndigheten (Swedish Prosecution Authority), rättslig vägledning RäV 2026:05 Barnpornografibrott
Open questions
  • How realistic must an AI-generated image be to count as a 'pornografisk bild' of a 'barn' under 16 kap. 10 a §, when the Högsta domstolen held in NJA 2012 s. 400 that images which were not 'verklighetstrogna' fell outside the offence and the Prosecution Authority's guidance says that guiding case law on AI-generated material is lacking?
  • Does the exemption in 16 kap. 10 b § for a person who 'tecknar, målar eller på något annat liknande hantverksmässigt sätt framställer' an image reach an image made with a generative model, where the image is not meant to be spread or shown to others?

What it makes you log

Logging duty

Chapter 16, sections 10 a and 10 b are a criminal prohibition on depicting, distributing, offering, acquiring, possessing or viewing a pornographic image of a child. Neither section states a duty to create, keep or produce a log or record of any kind.

Kind
None
As of

What this law does

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

Research summary

Legal information, not legal advice. This is LexLint's own research summary of a public legal source, and it creates no attorney-client relationship. For decisions that matter, consult qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. About LexLint

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 lifts the section 10 a prohibitions on depiction and possession for a person who produces a pornographic image of a child where the difference in age and development between the person depicted and the person producing the image is minor and the surrounding circumstances do not call for liability.

Section 10 b also lifts those prohibitions for a person who draws, paints, or otherwise makes such an image by comparable handicraft, if the image is not meant to be spread, transferred, shown, or made available to others. In any other case section 10 b provides that an act is not an offence if, given the circumstances, it is justifiable.

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 under Lag (2020:173).

When LexLint raises it

When your app profile says your app generates images with AI, generates video with AI or publishes adult content.

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