On June 1, 2012, Children’s Protection Day, the State Duma held a panel meeting “Adult problems of the Children’s Internet”. The panel meeting was initiated by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), “Smart Internet” foundation and “The League of Safe Internet”. The moderator of the panel meeting was Ilya Peresedov, “Smart Internet” foundation.
The State Duma Deputy Robert Shlegel pointed out in the framework of the panel meeting that legislative initiatives played a big role in Children’s protection in the Internet. Shlegel emphasized that it was necessary to create special safe areas in the Internet and to take into account the role of the self regulation in the Global Net.
During the panel discussion interesting statistics about the use of the Internet in Russia were made public. According to the Director of RAEC Sergey Plugotarenko, on average a Russian user spends in social networks almost 13 hours a month. It is the highest involvement of the audience in the social networks in the World- the average world figure of social networks use is a bit less than 6 hours a month. For Russian audience from 12 to 24 years the Internet back in 2010 became the first in importance media channel, having overdone even television.
Nevertheless, Galina Soldatova (“The Foundation for Internet Developmen“) is sure that so far the adults do not know much about the children in the Internet. As the expert believes each research of children’s behavior in the Internet brings those who create children’s Internet to understanding of what is actually necessary and interesting for children.
The participants of the panel discussion gave various opinions about the problem of “Children’s Internet”. Denis Davydov (“The League of Safe Internet”) believes that with great possibilities which the Internet provides for education and development, the global network also carries serious threats. Davydov argues that the safety of children in the Internet may be ensured with the help of governmental regulation of the network, consistent work of the whole society on education and spread of network culture of behavior among children and young people as well as the use of modern technical means of content filtration. According to Olga Kostina (Civic Chamber of the RF) certain prohibition measures in the Internet may be necessary but the development of the Internet and the appearance of the positive content in the Internet should be supported and promoted, including those on the governmental level.
“When we were preparing an application for the registration of gTLD .ДЕТИ we gathered a huge amount of information about the situation with the Children’s Internet in Russia,” says Marina Nikerova, deputy General Director of the Technical Center of Internet and the Chairman of the “Smart Internet” foundation. It turned out that for 1000 of Internet users in our country there are 10 children’s resources. It is a dramatically small figure, therefore our priority today is to create and promote good websites for children and young people.”The Director of the “Smart Internet” foundation Vladimir Mamontov also pointed out that before educating people in the Internet it is necessary revise your own behavior in the Internet.
The Vice-President of Mail.Ru and the Member of the Board of the Coordination Center Mikhail Yakushev believes that the solution of the problem of children’s safety in the Internet is impossible without a comprehensive approach. Yakushev thinks that for making progress it is important to combine interests of various organizations, businesses, governmental agencies and public. “Single attempts to do something useful in this sphere will not solve the problem, it is necessary to act together”, says Mikhail Yakushev.
Despite the range of opinions all participants of the panel discussion believe that it is not enough to hedge children from the unfavorable content in the Internet. According to experts it is important to carry out educational and agitation work and simultaneously create more positive content, useful and interesting for the growing generation.
