A State Duma member makes paper figures during a session of the State Duma.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Educational Policy Turns Protective
// Duma makes educational policy stricter
A legislative ban on children’s free use of the Internet, or walking the streets after 10:00 p.m. under threat of punishment for the parents, or celebrating “borrowed” holidays, such as Halloween or St. Valentine’s Day. Those measures are part of the concept for a state policy on educating the younger generation that was discussed in the State Duma yesterday.
Parliamentary hearings were held yesterday at which the “Concept for a State Policy in the Area of Spiritual and Moral Education of the Children of the Russian Federation and Protection of Their Morals” was discussed. It is to stretch to 2020 and was developed by members of the Duma, the Public Chamber and the public council of the presidential representative for the Central Federal District. The drafters of the concept have prepared five bills and more than ten amendments to existing law to protect the younger generation. For example, the draft law “On Moral and Patriotic Education and Guarantees of the Rights of Children in the Informational Sphere” envisages that all informational products, from books and films to websites and computer games will be divided into groups by audience age as “6 and older,” “12 and older,” “16 and older” and “18 and older.”
Specifically, children under 6 will be allowed to read books and watch cartoons where there is “non-naturalistic description of violence justified by the genre and topic under the condition of sympathy with the victim and a condemnatory attitude toward violence.” After 16, it will be possible to hear “expletives justified by the genre” and watch “depictions of sexual acts between men and women that do not have a pornographic nature.” The draft law “On Children’s Toys” would ban the production and importation of toys that “provoke aggression,” “model actions of a sexual nature,” “justify extremism and a criminal lifestyle,” “depict horror or unbearable pain” or that are created “on the basis of the psychologically incongruous.” That might be, for example, candy in the shape of skeletons or stuffed toys in the shape of bacteria or viruses.
Other legislative initiatives propose imposing a curfew for schoolchildren from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. During those hours, children would be unable to be present in public places under threat of punishment to their parents. Attempts by schoolchildren to send SMS messages with obscene words (including those in Latin transcription) would be blocked by the cellular operator. Schools would be forbidden to observe “artificially borrowed holidays not appropriate to Russian cultural values,” such as Halloween and St. Valentine’s Day.
The drafters of the concept took a particular negative stance in regard to the Goth and emo youth subcultures, which are characterized by black clothing, piercings and a depressed outlook on reality. They authors compared the danger those subcultures hold for society to the dangers of skinheads, soccer hooligans, National Bolsheviks and even anti-fascists. Emo youths, according to the concept, “are subject to suicidal tendencies” and Goth children cultivate bisexuality. “The cost of the sexual services of an underage boy prostitute with Goth attributes is lower than for students in military schools but higher than for usual gay prostitutes,” the authors say, demonstrating their knowledge of life. The government would use informational campaigns for healthy lifestyles to fight the nonconformists, as well as the introduction of “Basics of Orthodox Christian Culture” in the schools and a legislative ban on tattoos and piercings for minors (“with the exception of women’s earrings”).
The authors of the concept say that many of its clauses will have the power of law by the summer of 2009. “Nothing can be done with the current younger generation. It is lost,” said film director and Duma member Stanislav Govorukhin. “We have to save those who are two years old now and those who have yet to be born.” Lawyer Pavel Astakhov told Kommersant that the measures would not conflict with existing legislation. “Curfew for children exists in other countries in one form or another and the Constitution of the Russian Federation says that human rights can be limited if it is a matter of health or morality,” he noted. “And tattooing and piercing can be seen as causing damage to the health.”
“The proposed measures are like an imitation of busyness,” commented Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy director of the SOVA anti-extremist center. “Skinheads and Goths cannot be fought with the same methods. The result of the fight will be the same – youth protest will grow even more, and youth will be attracted to everything forbidden, making it even more popular. Our state fought hippies, rockers, metal fans, and lost every time, because there will always be a youth subculture.”
“For all of its positive moments, there are many serious errors,” Galina Semya, member of the Ministry of Science and Education coordinating council, told Kommersant. “For example, everything borrowed from the West is condemned. The good and the bad. A significant part of the legislation is built upon forced motivation for children and parents, and that won’t work. In short, the document needs very serious reworking.”
Andrey Kozenko
All the Article in Russian as of June 03, 2008
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