Minister to meet with tech giants to discuss child safety online
Equality minister Nina Larsson is set to meet with representatives from TikTok, Snapchat, Google and Meta on Wednesday to discuss what they are doing to protect children and young people online, regarding issues like grooming and sexual exploitation.
"I want to hear what they have to say in their defence, because things have gone too far," Larsson said.
They will be joined by representatives from charities working with child safety like Bris, Child X and Ecpat, as well as the Gender Equality Agency. A recent report by Bris has shown that almost one in five children feels unsafe online, with many saying they would feel safer if tech companies took greater responsibility.
"It's yet another report which shows the absolute vulnerability which many young girls and children in general are subject to online," Larsson said.
A different report from Allmänna barnhuset showed in 2021 that one in four children had experienced attempted grooming online before they turned 15.
Larsson said that the platforms should have better age controls, but should also introduce better tools to limit and stop perpetrators looking for children. She said that there are many users who explicitly write that they are looking after children to groom.
"It must be possible for companies to get rid of them with use of AI technology," she said. "Anything less is just contributing to normalising child exploitation."
Swedish vocabulary: utsatthet ‒ vulnerability
Flights from Swedish airports increased in November
The number of people taking flights from Sweden's ten state-owned airports went up by 7 percent in November compared to the same month last year, according to a press statement.
International flights rise 6 percent, while domestic flights saw a 12 percent rise.
Around 2.5 million people travelled through Swedish airports, with the majority, 1.8 million, flying through Arlanda. Landvetter, Gothenburg's airport, came in second place with around 380,000 travellers passing through in November.
Despite the rise, the number of people flying in November was still much lower than it was before the pandemic, with 16 percent fewer flights taken in November 2025 when compared with the same month in 2019.
Swedish vocabulary: flygplats ‒ airport
Swedish Christmas food set to be more expensive this year
It looks like Swedes' Christmas groceries are going to be more expensive this year than last year, according to new figures from price comparison site Matpriskollen.
Potatoes and salmon are cheaper, while the price of coffee and chocolate has skyrocketed.
"A box of chocolate pralines could cost more than 20 percent more than last Christmas," Matpriskollen's CEO Ulf Mazur said in a statement.
The site looked at the price of around 100 items Swedes often buy around Christmas, comparing them to last year. The price of those items rose 3 percent this year compared to last year, and by around 30 percent when compared to Christmas 2021.
Dairy products have also become more expensive, with butter 12 percent higher than last year.
Mazur's advice for consumers is to do your Christmas food shopping in the weeks before Christmas, when there are often good deals to be found on coffee, ham, pickled herring and eggs.
Swedish vocabulary: julmat ‒ Christmas food
New trend on property market with fewer homes on sale
The number of properties on sale dropped by two percent last month compared with the same month last year. It's the first time in almost four years that the number of homes on sale has dropped, according to statistics from property site Hemnet.
It added that the drop is primarily due to the fact that the number of properties on sale, especially when it comes to smaller houses, has been relatively high for a while.
"After four years where the number of houses on sale has steadily increased, that trend has now been broken," Hemnet market analyst Erik Holmberg wrote in a press statement. "That's due to the fact that a lot is being sold when compared to the number of new properties coming onto the market."
More than half of Sweden's counties ‒ 12 of 21 ‒ saw the number of properties on sale drop in November, with Halland seeing the largest drop of 15 percent, compared with November 2024. Västerbotten county was among those where the number of properties on sale rose compared with the same month last year, seeing an increase of 11 percent.
Swedish vocabulary: utbud ‒ supply
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