After several high-profile cases where staff at Swedish preschools were convicted of photographing children for child pornography purposes, many municipal preschools have chosen to ban private cell phones altogether.
– It was because we had a case here in the municipality where pictures of children were taken, explains Elisabeth Uitto, head of operations in Östersund municipality.
Five years ago, a preschool employee in the municipality was convicted of downloading 1,600 images and videos with abuse material, and when the police cracked down on the man, it was also discovered that he had also “in a pornographic way” surreptitiously photographed a girl at the preschool where he worked, reports the state channel P4.
It was after that incident that a mobile phone ban was introduced, Uitto explains.
– Things like that must not happen. We are responsible for the safety of the children when they are with us.
“No ability to frisk”
According to the state radio review, most of the preschools in Jämtland currently have a mobile phone ban. Six out of eight municipalities respond that private cell phones are not allowed in the workplace at all, and the other two have introduced restrictions on how the phones should be used.
Both bans and restrictions are based entirely on voluntary compliance by staff, and no special controls are applied, they explain.
– It is a matter of trust. We don’t have the ability to frisk them and check if they have any hidden phones in their clothes, says Ann-Margret Selberg, preschool director in Bräcke.
According to the Swedish public broadcaster’s survey, 85 percent of 225 Swedish municipalities that responded to SR’s survey have introduced some form of mobile phone ban. 76 municipalities chose not to respond to the survey.
