After the media’s joint efforts ahead of the election largely focused on so-called teenage deportations, attention is now shifting to the Tidö government’s proposed lowering of the age of criminal responsibility. The shift is being highlighted with the help of a letter from an alleged seven-year-old.

The government wants to temporarily lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13 years for serious crimes such as murder, aggravated rape, and bombings. The aim is to stop gangs from using minors and to strengthen society’s protection against serious violence.

This week, Expressen gave significant coverage to a handwritten letter from a purported seven-year-old girl.

“Hello Ulf, did you know that you are still a child at 13?” the letter begins, with the author expressing the view that prison should only be considered at 18, when one is an adult.

“I don’t think it’s okay,” the letter continues, along with a question on whether the law could be changed.

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In his reply, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) wrote that the issue raises strong emotions and that he would actually prefer not to have children in prison, but the situation with increasingly younger youths and children committing serious crimes makes it necessary.

“Not all children who commit crimes will be sentenced to prison. It is those who, for example, commit murder who need to be locked up, to protect other children from violence,” the Prime Minister writes.

Under the proposal, the new law is set to take effect on July 3.

Fake?

Not everyone is convinced that the letter was actually written by a seven-year-old. Debater and author Rebecca Weidmo Uvell is among the skeptics: