New laws
🧒 Tougher laws on digital child abuse. From July 2025, Denmark will criminalize computer-generated child abuse material, deepfakes without consent, and sharing everyday photos of kids in sexualized contexts. The new law also lets police use fake material to catch offenders. The move follows a sharp rise in child abuse image cases and was shaped by Save the Children’s recommendations.
🎈 Denmark tightens grip on illegal laughing gas sales. Parliament has passed a new law allowing authorities to use fake social media profiles to infiltrate secret groups selling illegal laughing gas. The goal is to protect young people and crack down on sellers hiding behind anonymous accounts. Platforms that ignore takedown orders risk being blocked by court ruling.
Political scene
🕵️ Should we have a privacy commission? Opposition parties want a new independent commission to assess whether our right to privacy is being eroded by expanding surveillance laws. The proposal comes after fierce backlash to the government’s draft PET law, which would allow intelligence services to collect vast datasets, including from public registers and social media. Parties across the political spectrum now support the idea of a “privatlivskommission” to study trends in surveillance and recommend limits.
🛡️ Denmark to inspect and upgrade shelters. The government will review the condition of its 3.6 million emergency shelter spaces to ensure they are usable in case of attack. Existing shelters will be inspected, metro stations may be repurposed, and a legal loophole allowing municipalities to remove shelters will be closed. Authorities aim to finish the review by year’s end. Lessons will also be drawn from Ukraine and fellow Nordic countries to improve civil preparedness.
Read our new article on crisis preparedness
🕊️ Humanists want equal status as a belief community. Humanistisk Samfund performs weddings, funerals, and naming ceremonies, just like religious groups. But because they don’t believe in a god, they’re denied legal status as a faith community. MP Karin Liltorp calls it discrimination and proposes changing the law to include “belief and life-stance communities.” The government says belief in a “higher power” is essential to avoid “flattening” the concept of religion.
🛑 No support for stopping arms trade with Israel. A citizens’ petition calling to end all Danish arms trade with Israel, including F-35 fighter jet cooperation, was debated in Parliament but found little backing. Only Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance) and Alternativet (Greens) support the proposal, while the other parties, including the government, reject it. The foreign minister says Denmark already tightened weapons export rules and remains aligned with the EU. He also notes no other countries have exited the F-35 partnership.
