Police chief on violence against children that is spread digitally:

Child and youth crime is increasing strongly in Oslo, according to a report from the Oslo police which was presented during the SaLTo conference on Wednesday.

Police chief Ida Melbo Øystese is particularly concerned about acts of violence that are filmed with mobile phones and spread on social media.

– I feel it in my gut when young people have their youth ruined, because degrading acts are spread digitally, says Øystese at the conference.

She says that a few children can terrorize an entire neighborhood or a class and that the consequence is often social anxiety, school refusal and despair.

– The children don’t dare tell their parents, the parents don’t dare tell us. Then the rule of law plays completely bankrupt.

The police chief asks what the consequence will be, if the rising generation believes that the police cannot help them.

– This is where it burns the most.

Øystese says that fights behind the school have always been part of growing up. But she believes the violence has become more serious.

– We have seen examples of terrible incidents that are in the lower tier of criminal offenses – punches, kicks, ear punches and scratching with a knife.

She also points out that sharing violence in social media is a new dimension.

– We see the fear in the eyes of the children who are exposed to violence, when it is shared and they lose complete control. We see the anxiety that lies in how long it will last, the expectations that you have to take revenge…

The police chief says that these are new aspects that the police must take seriously.

– We will clearly prioritize greater presence in public spaces, where citizens feel most unsafe, says Øystese.

The number of police reports against children and young people aged 10–17 in Oslo increased by 56 per cent from 2022 to 2023.

That’s the equivalent of 1,000 reviews. Compared to the average for the last three years before corona, the increase was 21 per cent.

The largest category is crime for profit, including shoplifting. Six out of ten reports against girls are for profit-making.

For boys, violence is the biggest offense category. Last year, 712 reports were registered for violence with perpetrators aged 10–17. Less than 2 percent were coded as “gross injury or more serious”.

The statistics use registered reports with the crime scene in Oslo municipality, where the identified perpetrator is aged 10–22.

A total of 1,795 people in the age group 10–17 were registered with one or more relationships last year. 68 percent of them were boys.

Will move criminals

Øystese reminds that the police cannot use coercive measures under criminal law against young people under the age of 15 and that an alternative is needed.

– We must have something else that can lift the children out and place them somewhere else, to get them out of the very unfortunate role they have entered.

Øystese says it is important to think about the best interests of all the other children, when the child protection service has to deal with child and youth criminals.

– It may be that this child has to be moved to another place, in order to receive good treatment and guidance into adulthood.