Материал: disser_arhipov
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feelings towards minors or justifying sexual behavior towards minors as such. The following reservation has been added to this criterion:
«[E]xcept for works of art which describe the relations between minors and adults, justified by their genre and/or plot, which do not fall under the criteria set out in Items 1.1 to 1.3 of this Chapter».
Apparently, it was meant to be a reference to a classic of world literature – a novel “Lolita” by V.V. Nabokov. Absolutely not taking child pornography as a permissible phenomenon, one can notice at the same time that Item 1.3 of the Criteria for Prohibited Information, for example, refers to the following criteria: «Information on the involvement of minors as performers in spectacular events of a pornographic nature, including information on the venues of the spectacular events or contact information». There are no reservations about artistic works in relation to this paragraph, but will (and should) this criterion be applicable to an artistic work, say, in a detective genre in which the information, including the location of such activities, is entirely fictional and refers to the illustrative elements of a work intended to demonstrate, including the inevitability of punishment for the crimes committed against minors involved? A similar question arises, by the way, with regard to historical information, for example, from court summaries from the nineteenth century, which may contain information that literally meets this criterion but has lost its relevance to daily life.
A similar situation exists with regard to the criteria for evaluating information on the methods and methods of development, manufacture and use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, analogues of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances (hereinafter referred to as “narcotic drugs” for brevity) set forth in Chapter II of the Criteria for Prohibited Information. Thus, Item 2.1.1 of the Criteria for Prohibited Information establishes as such information describing or giving an idea of the procedure for the manufacture,
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development and use of certain types of drugs (including a description of the processes and (or) instructions (schemes) for their development, manufacture and use), as well as the methods of using precursors for their manufacture. A caveat is also established: “Except for artistic works, which describe the information justified by their genre”. Indeed, world literature and cinematography (as well as other works), especially in the XXth century, contain some examples where such information seems to be justified by the plot or genre. The same reservation is also contained in Item 2.1.6, which establishes as a criterion the information aimed at forming a positive image of the target audience of persons engaged in the manufacture, development and use of narcotic drugs, providing services for their acquisition or cultivating plants containing narcotic drugs. It is unlikely that there is much need to follow examples from popular culture – one can also recall the Russian film “Needle” (in the part where the film, to put it very formally, shows people who use drugs),117 featuring Victor Tsoi and Peter Mamonov in the lead roles and, perhaps more clearly, the American series “Breaking Bad”,118 which can probably be considered as aimed at forming a positive image of the target audience of persons engaged in the manufacture of drugs.
A more complex picture in the light of this study is presented in Chapter III of the Criteria for Prohibited Information, which discloses the criteria for assessing information on suicide and suicide calls for decisions that are the basis for including domain names and/or page indexes of websites and network addresses in the Unified Register. The artistic clause applies only to Item 3.2.2 of the Criteria for Prohibited Information – «Availability of information on the set of conditions necessary for suicide (choice of location, time). Methods, other preparatory actions to be taken to achieve the goal of suicide)». The
117See: Needle (1988) [Electronic resource] // Movie Search. – [Site]. – URL: https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/igla– 1988–42576/ (accessed on 21.02.2019).
118See: Breaking Bad (Series, 2008 – 2013) [Electronic resource] // KinoPoisk. – [Site]. – URL: https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/404900/ (accessed on 21.02.2019).
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reservation itself is more stringent than in previous cases, since it refers to works protected by law that have significant historical, scientific, artistic or other cultural value for society. Leaving aside specific sectoral issues and doubts about the systematic interpretation of this provision,119 it should be noted that this is no longer just a matter of artworks, which describe the information justified by their genre. What about, for example, protected works of low artistic value or unprotected works (if any) whose artistic value is nevertheless significant? The following examples may fall within the scope of doubt. Thus, Item 3.1 of the Criteria for Prohibited Information restricts the dissemination of “calls to commit suicide”. This includes, for example, the presence of a reference to suicide as a way of solving the problem (Item 3.1.2). Will any obvious example of black humour be considered as prohibited information in this case? Commentary with the same logic seems to be appropriate in respect of Item 3.1.5 – “Expression of condemnation, ridicule of failed attempt to commit suicide”. In addition, what about historical and modern cultural differences? Item 3.1.3 a little earlier indicates one of the criteria by which the call to commit suicide is to be revealed, namely “expression of positive assessment or approval: committing suicide or actions aimed at suicide, or intentions of the real (imaginary) interlocutor or third party to commit suicide, as well as the call to commit suicide”. In the light of cultural differences, it is clear that these criteria can be applied to the ritual suicide culture of medieval Japan (however, in the world of contemporary values, this problem is rather a matter of events that have lost their relevance, which is also discussed later in this paper).
119 For example, should the term “work” be interpreted in the same way as provided for in Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (meaning objects of copyright) in the light of the principle of lexical philological interpretation, according to which it is impossible to assign the same terms from different branches of law the same meaning without sufficient grounds. We emphasize that, in the context of cultural heritage legislation, the term “work” may be interpreted more broadly than for the purposes of intellectual property law.
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§ 3.2. Protecting children from information and legal qualification of “violence” in videogames
In the context of this study, a special case of direct application of legal norms to public relations, in which information is a direct subject, cannot but be avoided. In this sense, the provisions of various normative instruments aimed at protecting children from information that may be harmful to their health and development are most evident. Norms of this kind exist in many countries of the world in different forms. In some cases, they are fixed at the level of self-regulation,120 In others, at the level of heterogeneous legal texts establishing formal law.121 The latest model has been implemented in the Russian Federation, and the criteria for relevant information are set out in Federal Law No. 436-FZ of 29 December 2010 “On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to their Health and Development” (hereinafter, the “Children Protection Law”). The problem of this subject area from the perspective presented in this study is clearly illustrated by the example of discussions about computer games. In particular, on “violent computer games”. Without denying the need for serious scientific research on the impact of new media on the psyche and social processes,122 we regret to
120 This implies the reference to age ratings such as e.g. PEGI (Pan European Game Information) or ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). See correspondingly: PEGI Age Ratings [Electronic resource] // PEGI. – [Site]. – URL: https://pegi.info/page/pegi-age-ratings (accessed: 21.02.2019) и ESRB Ratings Guide [Electronic resource] // ESRB. – [Site]. – URL: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.aspx (accessed: 21.02.2019).
121In Germany, for example, a mixed model is in place: the ratings are assigned by the self-regulatory organisation USK, but a general law on child protection applies – Jugendschutzgesetz (JuSchG) of 23 July 2002. See: USK - Unterhaultungssoftware Selbstkontrolle [Electronic resource] // USK. – [Site]. – URL: http://www.usk.de/en/ (accessed: 21.02.2019) и Protection of Young Persons Act (Jugendschutzgesetz, JuSchG) of 23 July 2002 [Federal Law Gazette BGBI. I p. 2730, 2003 I, p. 476] [Electronic resource] // USK. – [Site]. – URL: http://www.usk.de/fileadmin/documents/Publisher_Bereich/2017_JuSchG_englisch.pdf (accessed: 21.02.2019).
122Recent works by O.V. Sergeyeva can serve as good examples of scientifically grounded sociological and interdisciplinary research. See e.g. Sergeyeva O.V. Chapter 16. Computer games in routine practices of adult citizens of Saint Petersburg / Social space of the big city [monograph] / Editor-in-Chief G.V. Eremichev; Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences – Branch of FNISTs RAS. – Saint Petersburg: Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Branch of the FNISTs RAS, 2018. PP. 371–388; Sergeyeva O.V. Time of computer games in the ethics of modern children’s and parents’ relations / Contours of the future: technologies and innovations in the cultural context. Collective monograph / Under edition of D.I. Kuznetsova, V.V. Sergeeva, N.I. Almazova, N.V. Nikiforova. Saint Petersburg: Asterion, 2017. PP. 159–
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note that in legal periodicals, both Russian and foreign, there is a tendency: if the author speaks about the harm of new information products, it is very likely that such statements will be deprived of sufficient and consistent arguments.
For example, E.M. Nikitina writes:
«With regard to online games played by young people, these games are dangerous for children because they themselves contain elements of aggression, killing other online characters (the same can be said of the content of most common computer games purchased by children on simple computer discs), children become more cruel».123
Unfortunately, the article does not provide any scientific substantiation for this position, which would allow us to consider it to be properly substantiated and not to express the subjective emotional opinion of the author, not to mention the data of psychological, medical and sociological studies, which have been conducted in the world for more than 25 years and in most cases are available.124 The author further gives an example of the murder of one player in an online game by another in a quarrel,125 however, firstly, the convicted person in the example given by the author is 22 years old – he is of legal age, and the example with him does not correlate much with the problem of the influence of computer games on the psyche of children (as well as with the problems of juvenile justice – the article is published in the journal of the same name), and secondly, from the fact that such a crime has been committed, it does not follow in itself that the illegal behavior is in any way in causal connection with the game. There are more than two
163; Sergeyeva O., Tsareva A., Zinoveva N., Kononova O. Social Skills Amongst MMORPG-Gamers: Empirical Study // SHS Web of Conferences. – 2018. – No. 50. PP. 1–5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185001008.
123Nikitina E.M. How Can We Protect our Children from the Negative Influence of the Mass-Media? // The Questions of Juvenile Justice. 2008. № 4. – Access from the legal reference system «ConsultantPlus» (accessed: 11.02.2019). – Para. 18.
124See e.g.: Amini T., 25 Video Game Violence Studies, Summarized // Kotaku. 1/17/13 [Electronic resource]. – [Site]. – URL: https://kotaku.com/5976781/25-video-game-violence-studies-summarized (accessed: 11.01.2019).
125Nikitina E.M. How Can We Protect our Children from the Negative Influence of the Mass-Media? // The Questions of Juvenile Justice. 2008. № 4. – Access from the legal reference system «ConsultantPlus» (accessed: 11.02.2019). – Para. 18.