The bill, dubbed "On Internet Censorship" in society, was in fact an amendment to the Federal Law "On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Health and Development." It was adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation on June 28, 2012.
The amendments to the child protection law resulted in the adjustment of several other federal regulations in force. Some of them will take real force in September-November 2012, the rest will take effect from January 1, 2013.
Of all the possible forms of control over information that gets into the network, Russian lawmakers have chosen the most optimal - tracking and blocking access to sites containing "questionable" content. Some human rights activists feared that the changes would affect Wikipedia and some other independent Internet resources, but this did not happen. But the bill made it possible to prosecute persons who, on the basis of an appropriate agreement, have the right to provide third parties with access to the Internet, but do not want to provide an adequate level of protection from dangerous information. Now Internet service providers can be punished even for the theoretical possibility of visiting nationalist or terrorist sites.
All Runet sites should be divided into several types and appropriate warning information should be posted on the main page of the portal. The first type of sites can be visited by children whose age does not exceed 6 years, the second - 12, the third - 16. Sites of the fourth category are available for use only for adults. The classification will be carried out by a specially created state commission. Ignoring the requirements of the law is equivalent to an administrative offense.
All Internet pages are subject to inclusion in the state register of domain names registered in the territory of the Russian Federation. It contains the site address, contact details of the owner, the domain name and the name of the provider.
