The Russian legislative assembly in Leningrad Region has drafted a bill to bar children under the age of 14 from using social media networks.
According to the drafted bill, social network platforms would register new users using their passport data only. Also, platforms found violating this rule could be fined between 100,000 to 300,000 rubles (about US$1,700 to $5,260), and users who provide false passport data could face fines of between 1,000 and 3,000 rubles ($17 to $53).
The proposed bill states that users would not be allowed to create more than one page per platform, and would need to use their real names while doing so. Violation of this rule would be punishable by fines of up to 300,000 rubles ($5,260) for service owners and up to 5,000 rubles ($88) for users.
Registration on social platforms using real documents would also help lawmakers enforce restrictions on mature content. According to draft, social media platforms must prevent under-18s from joining communities or following pages with mature content. If children were caught doing so, their parents would be fined up to 2,000 rubles ($35).
While proposing restrictions on content distributed via social networks, the law would also ban any information concerning public marches and rallies not been agreed with regional authorities, as well as any hate speech, promotion of alcohol and tobacco products, and propaganda of "non-traditional sexual relations." The draft further seeks to prohibit any advertising of magic and occult services and designer drugs.
Deputy Vladimir Petrov of the Leningrad Regional Legislature told with Izvestia Daily that they want the new bill to come into force on January 1, 2018, while giving service providers enough time to change their user agreements and delete accounts created by people under the age of fourteen.
Representatives of major Russian social networks said that the bill looks like an April Fool's joke. Dmitry Marinichev, the Russian ombudsman for business rights, described the bill as "heresy" and added that even if passed, it would never work in practice because of children's natural desire to communicate.