In the summer of 2012, Russia approved a law to block websites harmful to children. Since it caused an ambiguous reaction in society and among representatives of the Runet, it was decided to make the necessary changes to it.
Despite the protests of Runet representatives, the law “On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development” was adopted and should come into force as early as November 1, 2012. However, Internet businessmen and employees of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications unanimously supported the need to make significant amendments to it.
In this regard, at a meeting of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), discussions were held on by-laws regulating the closure of access to sites containing information harmful to children. The project will be finalized in August, and the registry operator will be known by September.
In particular, the meeting discussed the issue of access to the register of "closed" sites. According to the adopted law, it cannot be open to everyone. According to the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Alexey Volin, this may lead to advertising of sites from the black list. However, some participants announced the creation of conditional access to them, as required by moral and ethical considerations.
The next amendment should be the question of how to block sites. According to the bill, it should consist of three steps: by url (page address), by domain and by IP. However, this decision provoked a protest from both the representatives of Runet and the Minister of Communications. In their opinion, it is necessary to close specific page addresses or domains, which, by the way, will be profitable and economically. Such a proposal was put forward by Yandex representative Ochir Mandzhikov, RAEC analyst Irina Levova and Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov.
The discussion also raised the question of the candidacy of the operator of the registry of black sites. Internet companies are converging on a government agency that is likely to be Roskomnadzor. This organization has already expressed its readiness to maintain such a register.
