On 8 February 2011, the second Forum on Safe Internet was held in Moscow. Traditionally, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU was the official partner of the Forum.
The time of the Forum coincided with the Day of Safer Internet, which is celebrated on February 8. This year, the motive of the International Day of Safer Internet became “It’s more than the game – this is your life!”
At the opening of the Forum, the welcoming message to the attendees from Igor Schegolev, the RF Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Media was read. The Minister noted, in particular: “The Internet’s role in societal life is growing. This opens new opportunities. But the Internet can be used not only for creation and development. Our main priority lies not just in a sober assessment of threats, but in proposing measures to preclude them.”
In his presentation at a plenary session of the Forum, Andrey Kolesnikov, director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU, briefed the attendees on the state of affairs with respect to ensuring safer Internet for the young and what the CC was doing in this regard. “Domain names registrars in Russia lend a big hand to elimination of negative content. For example, according to the data provided by hotline on combat against child pornography, which the CC has supported from the onset, in the course of 2010 registrars have withdrawn delegation of 29 domains which posted child pornography. The work is under way on removal from the Internet of resources with ‘adult’ pornography,” – said Andrey Kolesnikov.
“My daughter is 15 years old and she is the Runet’s age mate. So I have an opportunity to study in detail what she and her peers are doing on the web, what they are interested in, and which sites they browse. And I can say that a child and teenager’s behavior in the Internet is largely, if not all, depends on education. Of course, I, as a father, am still worried whether my daughter may fall a prey to a network aggression, whether she can insulted online - but I raised her rightly, and she adequately responds to negative content. In general, we need to communicate more with the younger generation to understand they are they different and they differ greatly from us. At the conference “Internet and School.
eneration .РФ” held in Yaroslavl last year, I had a feeling that I got into the Strugatsky brothers’ novel "The Ugly Swans": a whole generation has already grown up, who behave in the Internet in a totally unaccustomed to us way, and not the way we expect them to behave. And our task is to closely examine their behavior and help them protect themselves from the negative content’s influence," - said Andrey Kolesnikov.
As well, the CC’s director briefed on practical steps by the Coordination Center t to ensure safety of the Internet space in Russia. "We support two hotlines to combat illegal content: a project "The whistle-blowing hotline on child pornography in the Internet” maintained by the “Friendly Runet”. Foundation was funded by the CC for two years, as well as a hotline for anonymous whistleblowers regarding illegal content operated by the Center for Safe Internet. "It is worth noting that the Coordinating Centre provides regular financial support for publication of educational literature on the subject and is an organizer of the "Positive Content" contest. Thus, the Coordinating Center actively promotes formation of friendly and safer environment for children and teenagers in Runet.
