The Legal Enforcement of Information Security of Children in Russian Federation

The research paper is a prepared draft of the Federal Law “On Amending the Federal Law “On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development” dated December 29, 2010, No.436-FZ and Article 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation”. The need for changes is due to the goals of ensuring the information security of minors by increasing the level of legislative guarantees and organizational and legal mechanisms to protect children from harmful information. The relevance of the development and adoption of this law is due to the low and ineffective level of legal support for children's information security in the Russian Federation. The draft is aimed at implementing the objectives of state policy in the information sphere, enshrined in the Concept of National Security of the Russian Federation, the Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation, Article 14 of the Federal Law “On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation” and other federal laws. The Draft provides: 1. Additions to the criteria used in the age classification of information products, in that part that would allow taking into account the general context of the entire information product, without concentrating only on certain parts of any information. This, in turn, will help to reduce the risk of self-restriction of subjects of relations in making decisions on the publication of this or that information. 2. Responsibility of parents (legal representatives) for allowing children to consume information products that are not age-appropriate, or for allowing children to be in places where information that is not appropriate for the child’s age. This change is dictated by the fact that concern for the information security of children should be distributed in proportion to the degree and type of social influence on the development of the child. 3. Establishing the priority of expert assessment over the age marking carried out by manufacturers or distributors of information products in cases where information products are included in the approximate basic educational programs of basic general and secondary education. The authors of the Draft are sure that such information cannot be classified as prohibited for distribution among children. The draft has been prepared to take into account current foreign experience in legislative regulation of the circulation of information products harmful to children and youth, as well as domestic and foreign judicial practice, which provides for restrictions and prohibitions on the dissemination of information among children and adolescents that could harm the health and development of children. The concept and provisions of this draft are aimed at unifying and harmonizing Russian legislation with international law and the laws of foreign countries, and deepening international cooperation in this area.