School principals in Yakutia are being persecuted for accessing prohibited sites

In Neryungri, cases were initiated under Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses in relation to two school directors.

On April 21, 2015, the prosecutor's office of Neryungri (Republic of Sakha-Yakutia) announced the initiation of administrative cases under Part 1 of Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development) in relation to the directors of schools No. 1 and No. 2 in Neryungri.

The reason for the sanctions was that from computers installed in schools, there was access to banned, including extremist, sites. It is not clear from the prosecutor's report whether content filters are installed on school computers, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would point out their absence.

In addition, content filtering programs are generally ineffective and school personnel should not be held responsible for this.

Sources

• The prosecutor's office of the city of Neryungri conducted an inspection of educational institutions for compliance with the requirements of the Federal Law "On countering extremist activity" // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). 2015. April 21.