On April 25, 2025, the XIV Safe Internet Forum took place at the press center of the MIA Rossiya Segodnya. The event focused on issues of informational, spiritual, and moral security for children and adolescents in the digital environment.
The plenary session addressed modern challenges and threats to child safety online. Over 500 representatives of government agencies, academic and expert communities, NGOs, businesses, and parent associations participated in the forum.
Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, spoke at the thematic session titled “Artificial Intelligence: Development Prospects and Legal Regulation,” which explored AI’s impact on the internet, including digital service security and regulation.
He highlighted the Coordination Center’s use of artificial intelligence: AI is employed not only for internal document processing but also integrated into user-facing digital services. For example, since April 17, 2025, the Coordination Center’s website has offered a new AI-powered domain name selection tool. Users describe their project or idea, and the AI suggests relevant domains in the .RU and .РФ zones. “We tested the service ourselves, and one of the proposed names was учи-ит.рф. The domain proved so effective that it was immediately registered and will now be used for our educational project,” Vorobyev shared.
He noted that AI opens new horizons for both digital service development and cybercrime: “We observe a vast number of phishing sites created using AI, demonstrating how these technologies become tools for fraudsters. In this context, coordinated efforts to counter malicious actors in the digital environment are especially critical.”
Andrey Vorobyev emphasized that such efforts are underway through the Domain Patrol project, implemented by the Coordination Center in collaboration with partner organizations, including the Safe Internet League, National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents, Bank of Russia, Kaspersky Lab, and others. “Through this collaboration, we can swiftly identify and suspend the delegation of domain names used for illegal purposes in the .RU and .РФ zones, thereby enhancing the security of the entire domain infrastructure,” he added.
In the second part of his speech, the Coordination Center Director drew parallels between internet and AI regulation, stressing that the latter allows far less time to develop coordinated approaches. “The urgent need for prompt collaboration among all stakeholders – government, business, and society – has become critically important,” Andrey Vorobyev underscored.
The discussion on AI regulation continued with MGIMO Professor Elena Zinovieva, Ph.D. in Political Science, who recently edited the book International Internet Governance, published by the Coordination Center jointly with MGIMO’s Department of World Politics.
During the session, practical insights on AI were shared by ReFace Technology co-founder and Vice President of the Russian Association of Communication Agencies Alexey Parfun, as well as Igor Sviridov, Deputy Director of the Integral R&D Institute. Session moderator Oleg Kapranov, columnist for Rossiyskaya Gazeta and IT expert, concluded the discussion by highlighting the importance of balancing technological advancement with regulatory measures.
The forum is part of the Decade of Childhood initiative, established by an executive order of the President of the Russian Federation, and reflects strategic priorities in state policy to protect minors from harmful content and illegal online activities. Special attention was given to preventing adolescent involvement in extremist communities and strengthening legal regulation of the digital environment.
