The first National Forum “Children's Health and Safety”, which took place on November 21-22, 2022, ended in Moscow. The forum brought together key experts on childhood issues in Russia and representatives of public organizations and authorities. The forum's agenda was devoted to protection of the young generation's health and safety in the modern world.

The attendees discussed current issues like how to protect the young generation's health and safety and innovative methods for improving the education and parenting system. The issues of harmful information, fake news, and the manipulation of children and teenagers received special attention.

Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev has taken part in the forum.

Andrey Vorobyev discussed the steps taken by the government, the Coordination Center, and the entire Internet industry to combat illegal content on the Internet and raise Internet literacy among Russian users at the section titled “Destructive Content On The Internet: Directions And Forms Of Fighting.”

In particular, the Coordination Center made updates to the Domain Name Registration Rules in the .RU and .РФ domains, expanding the powers of Roskomnadzor to pre-trial blocking of domain names of websites with illegal content. The changes will come into effect on December 12, 2022. In addition, it is planned to submit to the State Duma a bill prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia stating that registration of domains will be possible only for users authorized in the ESIA.

However, Andrey Vorobyev emphasized that blocking is not a magic pill – the perpetrators must be found and brought to justice. “The state has already learned how to effectively block, but not to search for those who create destructive content. And as long as law enforcement agencies report exclusively with blocking, violations will continue, as the perpetrators feel their impunity,” he said.

During the section “Fighting Fakes And False Information On The Internet”, Andrey Vorobyev noted the importance of promptly providing reliable information from the authorities responsible for the information agenda at all levels: federal, regional, municipal. “There is no universal recipe for fighting fake news, but timely and reliable information in official sources can stop the wave of fake news,” he said.

The problem of the negative impact of destructive content on the child's psyche is raised at different levels of public organizations. Thus, in November, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation hosted a series of round tables dedicated to the fight against the spread of destructive content among children and teenagers on the Internet, in which experts of the Coordination Center took part. Additionally, on November 17th, representatives from the Coordination Center, ROCIT, and the Union of Women of Russia attended an open meeting of the Public Council “Safe Information Environment for Childhood”. The experts discussed the goals and objectives of the updated Council, as well as work on the cataloging of negative content. The meeting participants noted the difficulties in counteracting the spread of destructive content and expressed the hope that the created cataloguer will act as a real barrier in preventing the impact of various kinds of content on children, becoming an assistant for specialists in working with students.