The discussion was attended by a member of the board of the National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters, Chairman of the Civic Chamber Commission for the Development of the Information Community, Mass Media and Mass Communications Rifat Sabitov, Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Protection of Children's Rights of the Ministry of Education of Russia Yulia Kostyryachenko, Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Mass Media of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation Ekaterina Chasovskaya, Head of the Educational Work Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Sergey Petrov, Member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Igor Ashmanov, Member of the Civic Chamber Commission, Director of the Association of Internet Industry Market Participants "Safe Internet League" Ekaterina Mizulina , Director of the Center for Global IT-Cooperation Vadim Glushchenko and Youth Digital Ombudsman Dmitry Gulyaev. The moderator was Denis Zavarzin, General Director of the Center for the Study and Network Monitoring of the Youth Environment.
During the meeting, the participants of the event discussed the key points that need modification during the further process of finalizing the project. In particular, Ekaterina Mizulina noted the need to bring the future Concept in line with the spiritual and moral values of the Russian Federation and the current policy in the field of family protection. She also emphasized the acute social need "to ensure children's access to information that contributes to their proper upbringing and education, socialization and all-round development."
In turn, Ekaterina Chasovskaya stressed that it would be useful to add statistics on the issue to the document. She also added that Russia has a certain toolkit to ensure the information security of children, mentioning the “White Internet” project, which is being developed under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Education.
Igor Ashmanov, a member of the HRC under the President of Russia, noted that the very name of the Concept “information security” actually narrows the focus of the document and suggested expanding its scope to include cinematography and literature. He drew particular attention to the need to include recommendations on digital hygiene for children into the Concept.
In the course of work on the new Concept, it makes sense to take a closer look at international experience in the field of protecting children in the information space, says Vadim Glushchenko, Director of the Center for Global IT-Cooperation. “In March 2021, the experts of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published a new document called ‘General Comment No. 25 on the rights of the child in the digital environment’, which became an addition to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In particular, the Guidelines say that States are directly responsible for the regulatory oversight of children on the Web. It also includes key recommendations such as the need to implement measures to protect children from risks, including cyber aggression, sexual exploitation and digital assault on the Internet. The authorities of the countries should also ensure the observance of children's rights on the Internet by the private sector, and the protection of children in the digital environment should be integrated into the national policy for the protection of children,” Vadim Glushchenko cited a recent example. He added that the rich experience of the European Union in this area, which, being undoubtedly focused on “European values”, could be taken into account by the authors of the new Concept one way or another.
Youth digital ombudsman Dmitry Gulyaev supported the emphasis on the formation of a unified state-public system for ensuring the information security of children in Russia, which was made in the draft Concept: “We are talking about the 'stake' on the development of a system of public control and self-regulation as opposed to 'clumsy' state regulation. In particular, the Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment is being mentioned, a potential partner of which, by the way, is the YDO, based on the “voluntary commitments” of its participants, signed on September 1 in the presence of the President of the Russian Federation”. He also noted that the Concept needs to be improved, first of all, from the point of view of criminology, since the sample of those destructive phenomena that are listed is not entirely clear.
Following the meeting, it was decided to create a working group to finalize the Concept in order to take into account all the comments made. After public hearings, the document will be sent to the Government and key departments for adoption at the federal level. “We will take into account the additions and in the near future we will send a single document to our colleagues in the Ministry of Digital Development that is responsible for the adoption of this document,” - explained the moderator of today's discussion Denis Zavarzin.
