The Children’s Runet 2018 industry report sets forth the basic and regular set of metrics for assessing the development of the internet’s children’s segment in Russia. The report was drawn up by the Internet Development Institute with the support of the Ministry of Digital Development, Telecommunications and Mass Media as well as the Kaspersky Lab, the Smart Internet Foundation (.ДЕТИ domain area) и the Regional Public Center of Internet Technology (ROCIT). Participants in the project, Mediascope, Brand Analytics (an analysis system for mass media) and the Public Opinion Foundation conducted their surveys specifically for the Children’s Runet 2018 report between September and December.
The report details the current state of affairs in the Russian internet children’s segment. For example, according to a survey, the number of Russian visitors to children’s websites stands at 24.5 million. The number of children’s content viewers on various platforms, including social media and video hostings, amounts to 41 million. However, adding the audiences from the near and far abroad, that will make it a total of 53 million active users of the children’s content in Runet, both children and adults.
Alexei Volin, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Telecommunications and Mass Media, commented on the results of the survey: “Currently, Runet not only has 90 million Russian users, which is over 70% of the country’s population, but also has a great influence on the entire Russian-speaking community. Our Russian-language content is in demand by both children and adults in the CIS, the Baltics, Germany, Israel, the United States and other countries with Russian communities. To this extent, the children’s Runet plays a significant role in integration by maintaining the younger generations’ links with the Russian language and culture. Support and development of the children’s content must remain a key sphere of the Runet development.”
“The Russian Internet Foundation and the .ДЕТИ domain zone is the Coordination Center’s favorite ‘brainchild’. Developing a segment free from inappropriate content has become an important milestone in the establishment of the children’s internet in Russia that is safe to use without parental supervision. We will continue to support this Runet segment and make sure there is more children’s content online. This is the focus of some other social projects carried out by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, primarily the Positive Content competition among the best children’s online resources. The winner will get our support in development,” Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev noted.
The Smart Internet Foundation was established in 2012 by the Coordination Center. The foundation manages the development of the children’s internet in Russia and support of humanitarian projects online. The foundation’s flagship project is the .ДЕТИ domain for Russian websites for children and about children. The domain was launched on April 7, 2014. Its mission is to create “a trusted internet space,” to improve the children’s and teenagers’ use of the internet and to provide a common platform for quality content for children.
