On April 23, the XIII Safe Internet Forum was held in Moscow. Its main topic was “Safety of Families and Children in the Digital Environment.” The topic was not chosen by chance: 2024 was declared by the President of Russia as the Year of the Family.
A large-scale dialogue platform brought together representatives of the executive and legislative authorities, law enforcement agencies, the IT industry, as well as public and scientific figures, the media, bloggers and leading experts.
The organizers of the Forum are the National Center for Assistance to Missing and Suffered Children and the Safe Internet League.
“Despite the huge activity of the state, society, law enforcement agencies, and our citizens, the Internet space still remains unsafe for families with children. The information war still continues. And it is families with children that are the main target group that is under attack,” Ekaterina Mizulina, Director of the Safe Internet League, member of the Public Chamber of Russia, during the plenary session, said.
According to the Director of the organization, in 2023 the Safe Internet League received more than 462,000 requests. 86% of them came from teenagers or citizens under the age of 35. 78% of requests are related to the distribution of dangerous content online.
“Thanks to these appeals to the League in 2023, 17 pedophiles, 36 online predators, 21 trash bloggers were found and brought to justice. 137 teenagers who were victims of online or offline bullying continue to study in a friendly atmosphere. 16 young people gave up the idea of committing suicide. Information about the sale of drugs has been removed from 1,662 resources on the network. Materials containing child pornography were removed from 18,977 resources. 177 bullying groups were blocked by Roskomnadzor after the League’s appeals,” Ekaterina Mizulina said.
Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev addressed the session “Artificial Intelligence: Prospects for Development and Legal Regulation”. He said that in the near future we will see a boom in activity on Internet platforms – after all, AI makes it possible to create content much faster. And here the focus should be on full control over the security of content, which is only possible on domestic sites.
“This statement did not arise out of nowhere, but was the result of many years of attempts to interact with foreign platforms and conduct dialogue with them. For many years, foreign resources have not deviated from the policy of bias and the spread of destructiveness. But we have full-fledged Russian analogues that monitor the safety of users and promptly respond to their complaints,” the speaker said.
At the same time, Andrey Vorobyev emphasized that the development of AI in general has a positive effect on economic growth and improving people’s well-being. “There is no need to fear that artificial intelligence will take away jobs. Prospects for the development of Artificial Intelligence include the automation of work, educational and even creative processes, but we are not talking about cutting jobs, but about improving the quality of life of people, creating new products and services, increasing productivity and labor efficiency. And the development of AI leads us to achieve true technological sovereignty,” Andrey Vorobyev noted.
