Russian Internet child safety law doesn't contradict int'l practice - ombudsman
MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Russia is being criticized for limiting freedom on the Internet due to its law protecting children from harmful information, while such regulations abroad are even more rigid, the Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights ombudsman, Konstantin Dolgov, said.
"In fact, there has been lots of criticism and still is, we are being criticized almost every single day. We are being criticized for limiting freedom to express opinion, freedom of information," Dolgov said at an international conference on child safety in the media environment.
"We are urging all our colleagues, firstly colleagues from western countries, developed democratic countries to look closely at the law we have passed and to not forget what has been done and is being done in this sphere internationally," Dolgov said.
Dolgov gave the example of other countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, and the UK. The regulations in these countries are quite strict, however they are not even called regulations sometimes, he said.
Dolgov said that limiting the access to certain resources, obligatory installation of filtering software, blocking IP-addresses, and criminal liability of up to 10 years in prison for distributing child pornography were among the measures to control the Internet sphere.