This is a problem if using "tri-state" checkboxes. Don't. They're confusing.
It is not a realistic problem for two-state checkboxes.
I'm from nordic country, and yes, I too have seen the "checkmark" to indicate mistake on school work as listed on the Wikipedia page and attributed to Sweden and Finland. I've however also seen that on my son's school work in the UK. And I've seen it used for correct. And for just "I've checked this".
It is not culturally consistent, and usually appears to be more indicative of a personal marking style.
And almost only in that kind of context.
Outside of that context, a checkmark is still mostly used as a positive confirmation across the Nordic countries too. You may want to make sure that the wording of the label does not give room for thinking you can tick it to answer "no", but that equally applies for a checkmark.
To make sure I wasn't overlooking some difference between Norway (where I grew up) and Sweden, I just checked aftonbladet.se - one of Swedens largest newspaper, and their signup page for example uses checkmarks to positively indicate the presence of features in their Swedish ad copy.
On a form it certainly is consistently meant to indicate "selected", just as an "x" is, in those countries as well unless the form explicitly says otherwise or indicates you can use both.
The only confusion arises if both are valid states because you've used a tri-state checkbox. So don't. They're confusing everywhere.
Maybe it's not universal, but the use of checkmarks outside boxes to indicate "wrong" in some contexts is entirely irrelevant to the interpretation of checkmarks in boxes on a form where the options are not-marked vs marked.
Sure, if you are designing a UI where you are displaying corrections to something, don't display a checkmark - probably irrespective of whether you include a box - without some additional indicator of whether it means right or wrong.
It is not a realistic problem for two-state checkboxes.
I'm from nordic country, and yes, I too have seen the "checkmark" to indicate mistake on school work as listed on the Wikipedia page and attributed to Sweden and Finland. I've however also seen that on my son's school work in the UK. And I've seen it used for correct. And for just "I've checked this".
It is not culturally consistent, and usually appears to be more indicative of a personal marking style.
And almost only in that kind of context.
Outside of that context, a checkmark is still mostly used as a positive confirmation across the Nordic countries too. You may want to make sure that the wording of the label does not give room for thinking you can tick it to answer "no", but that equally applies for a checkmark.
To make sure I wasn't overlooking some difference between Norway (where I grew up) and Sweden, I just checked aftonbladet.se - one of Swedens largest newspaper, and their signup page for example uses checkmarks to positively indicate the presence of features in their Swedish ad copy.
On a form it certainly is consistently meant to indicate "selected", just as an "x" is, in those countries as well unless the form explicitly says otherwise or indicates you can use both.
The only confusion arises if both are valid states because you've used a tri-state checkbox. So don't. They're confusing everywhere.
Maybe it's not universal, but the use of checkmarks outside boxes to indicate "wrong" in some contexts is entirely irrelevant to the interpretation of checkmarks in boxes on a form where the options are not-marked vs marked.
Sure, if you are designing a UI where you are displaying corrections to something, don't display a checkmark - probably irrespective of whether you include a box - without some additional indicator of whether it means right or wrong.