Germany’s 2025 federal situation report on sexual offences against minors, presented in Berlin on Tuesday, records more than 20,000 victims and a near 5% increase over the previous year. The sharpest acceleration is in offences without physical contact, which rose 16.5%. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the figures as “frighteningly high” and stressed they capture only reported crimes, with the true scale at least twice as large. Simultaneously, Swedish public health data cited in a policy debate shows suicides among 10- to 14-year-old girls rising by 4.5% annually, with 45% of the population reporting exposure to digital sexual harassment. The parallel datasets draw a direct line between the weaponisation of online platforms and severe psychological harm to minors.

The mechanism is increasingly mediated by artificial intelligence. The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) identifies two dominant patterns: cybergrooming, in which adults use AI-generated false identities to simulate friendship and extract intimate material, and the livestreaming of abuse, often ordered from countries such as the Philippines. BKA President Holger Münch reported that livestreaming referrals surged from 25 in 2024 to over 250 in early 2026. AI also enables the creation of new child abuse material from innocuous images and the re-circulation of old files, complicating police efforts to distinguish real from synthetic content. In Sweden, the debate article from Liberal Women frames the same digital dynamics as a round-the-clock arena of sexualised coercion, linking early pornography exposure to body anxiety, depression and self-harm.

Viewed from Berlin, the policy response centres on identification and deterrence. Dobrindt renewed his call for mandatory IP address retention for three months, a bill the Bundestag is expected to vote on in the autumn. The BKA also highlighted a regulatory gap: since April 2026, EU-level detection and reporting of child sexual abuse material and cybergrooming has been curtailed, pending a permanent Child Sexual Abuse Regulation before the interim solution expires in April 2028. Münch warned that without a durable legal framework, the opportunity to stop active abuse would be lost. The independent commissioner, Kerstin Claus, urged that sextortion be made a distinct criminal offence, noting that an estimated 11% of all children and adolescents globally are affected.

From Stockholm, the diagnosis is framed as a public health emergency requiring structural intervention. Liberal Women demand mandatory age verification for online pornography, a national programme of mental-health first-aid training for adults working with youth, and a requirement that schools block social media on school devices and question pupils about digital exposure during routine health checks. The Swedish argument treats the linear rise in suicides not as a statistical trend but as a direct consequence of leaving young girls defenceless online.

The next factual milestones are legislative. In Germany, the parliamentary vote on IP address storage is scheduled for autumn 2026. At the European level, the interim regulation on detecting online child abuse expires in April 2028, with negotiations on a permanent successor text now under way. In Sweden, the policy proposals remain at the stage of public debate, with no government bill yet tabled.