Confiscation of mobile phone from a minor
Supreme Court judgment 18 November 2021, HR-2021-2249-A, (case no. 21-103015STR-HRET), criminal case, appeal against judgment.
A (Counsel Anders Morten Brosveet) v. The Public Prosecution Authority (Counsel Stein Vale)
Justices: Normann, Noer, Kallerud, Arntzen, Høgetveit Berg
A 13-year-old boy, who had received a nude photo of a same-age girl he knew on his mobile phone, had taken a screenshot of the photo and shared it with two other friends. He told the girl about the photo, and demanded money from her to delete it. The Supreme Court found it clear that confiscation under section 69 of the Penal Code may as a starting point take place towards persons under the age of 15. Case law from European Court of Human Rights did not suggest otherwise. In the individual assessment, considerable emphasis was placed on the spread of the image and that the boy had demanded money to delete it. The appeal against the Court of Appeal's ruling, which had upheld the confiscation petition, was dismissed.