Sanctions against heads of educational institutions. Part 9

In March 2008, Rosobrazovanie (later abolished and reorganized into the Ministry of Education and Science) provided all Russian schools with licensed software packages, which include a content filtering program for Internet access. As it turned out, this program does not cope with the task, which was found out as a result of prosecutorial checks throughout the country. It is quite obvious that the fault for the fact that schoolchildren, despite access filters, have the opportunity to visit neo-Nazi and other inappropriate sites from school computers, lies not only with schools that do not update software with the necessary regularity, but also with the Ministry of Education and Science, which has installed an insufficiently effective product. Note that not all items of the Federal List of Extremist Materials are designed in such a way that they can be used as a guide to action (sometimes, when it comes to a website, its address may not be displayed completely or even completely absent, and the titles of books and articles are given no output).

In addition, we cannot fail to note that the very idea of fighting extremism in schools with the help of filters seems wrong to us. Firstly, any filter can be bypassed if desired, and secondly, it is in principle impossible to compile an exhaustive list of addresses and keywords.

However, prosecutors everywhere and regularly punish local officials and school leaders for this. We believe that the Ministry of Education and Science should be responsible for the imperfection of the content filtering system, and the negligence of the leadership of schools that do not update the program is a problem of labor discipline rather than law enforcement. Similarly, we treat the claims of prosecutors to the leadership of educational institutions regarding access to resources from the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites - in cases where it is known that a school or university is trying to stop this access.

We combined such cases into a single list, the first part of which covers the period from December 2009 to June 2011, the second - the period from July 2011 to June 2012, the third - from June 2012 to November 2013, the fourth - from November 2013 to the end of 2014, fifth - from January to December 2015, sixth - from January to December 2016, seventh - from January to December 2017, eighth - from January to December 2018. The continuation of this list is in front of you.

On December 3, 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Kotovsk, Tambov Region, as a result of an inspection in one of the local educational institutions, discovered that computers in educational and administrative premises have access to sites with materials recognized as extremist. A submission was made to the director of the institution, as well as a requirement to bring those responsible to personal and disciplinary liability. However, according to the prosecutor's office, the school "identified the persons responsible for organizing the said work [with the "Federal List of Extremist Materials"] and determined the procedure for their work with [recognized extremist] documents." It is not clear from the report whether content filters have been installed in schools, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would have clearly indicated their absence.
On July 18, 2019, the prosecutor's office of the Saratov region announced that the court had satisfied the claim of the prosecutor's office of the Dukhovnitsky district on the obligation of the secondary school named after. Hero of the Soviet Union V. I. Lavrov in the village of Goryainovka to ensure the proper operation of the content filtering system. During the audit, it was found that the school has organized unlimited and round-the-clock access to the Internet using a content filter. However, through one of the search engines, the inspectors managed to use the materials of the site that hosts the video included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
On July 15, 2019, the prosecutor’s office of the Chelyabinsk region reported that the prosecutor’s office of the city of Korkino had filed submissions to a number of local schools to eliminate violations of the law due to the fact that the content filtering system installed on the computers did not properly block extremist materials. It is reported that, based on the results of consideration of the submissions, officials were brought to disciplinary responsibility, and the violations were eliminated.
On July 15, 2019, the prosecutor's office of the Chelyabinsk region reported that the court satisfied the claim of the prosecutor's office of the Uisky district and fined the heads of two local schools for five thousand rubles each under Part 1 of Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the established requirements for the distribution among children of information products containing information that is harmful to their health and (or) development) because school computers made it possible to access materials recognized as extremist. It is not clear from the report whether content filters have been installed in schools, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would have clearly indicated their absence.
On June 5, 2019, the prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Altai reported that the prosecutor’s office of the Maiminsky district had made submissions to the directors of three schools. According to the results of the check, it turned out that from the computer classes of several schools one can get access to extremist materials and other undesirable information that is harmful to minors. It is not clear from the report whether content filters have been installed in schools, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would have clearly indicated their absence.
On May 27, 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Altai reported that the Prosecutor’s Office of Gorno-Altaisk had made representations to the directors of four city educational institutions. The reason was that the content filtering system installed on computers in computer science classrooms did not fully restrict access to prohibited information, including extremist materials. It is reported that the violations were eliminated, three persons were brought to disciplinary responsibility.
On May 24, 2019, the prosecutor's office of the Saratov region reported that the director of the Krasnokutsk veterinary technical school was fined 5 thousand rubles under part 1 of Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the established requirements for the distribution among children of information products containing information that is harmful to their health and (or) development) after the Krasnokutsk District Prosecutor's Office revealed that the content filtering system installed on the computers of the educational institution does not fully block access to "information of an extremist nature".
On May 20, 2019, the prosecutor’s office of Magadan, during an inspection of MBOU secondary school No. 7, discovered that a computer in the computer science office allows access to the book by B.S. Mironov "Russian Nationalism" (item 4868 of the Federal List of Extremist Materials). The inspectors concluded that the content filtering system was applied at the school “not in full”, in connection with which a submission was made to the principal.
On May 6, 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Kostroma Region reported that the Prosecutor’s Office of the Mezhevsky District had made submissions to the directors of three schools where computers in computer science classrooms could access content included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. It is not clear from the report whether content filters have been installed in schools, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would have clearly indicated their absence.
On April 30, 2019, the prosecutor's office of the Chelyabinsk region announced that by a decision of the justice of the peace, the director of the Miass Medical College was sentenced to a fine of 5 thousand rubles under part 1 of Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the established requirements for the distribution among children of information products containing information that is harmful to their health and (or) development). During the audit, the Miass prosecutor's office, together with the territorial department of the FSB, found that it was possible to get access to an audio recording from the college classroom, which is included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. It is not clear from the report whether the college had a content filter in place, but we assume that the prosecutor's office would otherwise have indicated that it did not exist. The prosecutor's office also noted in a press release that similar fines had previously been imposed on the heads of three educational institutions (we know of two fines in 2017 and one in 2018; in all cases, it was either a medical or geological exploration college).
On April 17, 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Lipetsk Region reported that the Gryazinsky Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office made a submission to the director of the Gryazinsky Technical College. The audit showed that the college provided all visitors with wireless Internet access, while users could access extremist materials, as well as resources with information on suicide methods and the manufacture of drugs. It is not clear from the message whether a content filter was installed at the school, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would point out its absence.
On April 16, 2019, the North-Western Transport Prosecutor's Office reported that the Arkhangelsk Transport Prosecutor's Office had made a submission to the director of the Arctic Maritime Institute. V. I. Voronin (branch of the State University of the Sea and River Fleet named after Admiral S. O. Makarov). In the course of the prosecutor's check, it was found that the content filtering system installed in the institution did not work effectively: it did not prevent access to materials recognized as extremist.
On February 6, 2019, the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Mari El reported that the prosecutor's office of Yoshkar-Ola demanded that the heads of three schools in the city make changes to the rules for using the Internet. In these local acts, approved by school directors, it was stated that " the school is not responsible for accidental access to information, including extremist information, that is not related to the educational process and the content of which is contrary to the legislation of the Russian Federation ." From the point of view of the prosecutor's office, the obligation to ensure protection from information harmful to minors is assigned to schools under subpara. 2 p. 6 art. 28 of the Federal Law "On Education", which refers to the creation of " safe conditions for learning, educating students ."
On January 28, 2019, the prosecutor’s office of the Vologda Oblast reported that in 2018, the prosecutor’s office of the Babushkinsky district, during an inspection of the Babushkinsky secondary school, revealed that students had free access to information harmful to minors, including extremist materials. What measure of the prosecutor's response was chosen, is not specified. It is not clear from the report whether a content filter was installed at the school, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would more clearly indicate its absence.
On January 10, 2019, the prosecutor’s office of the Nizhny Novgorod region reported that the Sergach interdistrict prosecutor’s office established during an audit that content filters did not function on school computers in the computer science classrooms in two educational institutions of the Krasnooktyabrsky district. As a result, children had access to extremist materials. The head of the administration of the Krasnooktyabrsky district was presented with a proposal to eliminate the violations. It is not entirely clear from the message whether content filters were installed, but we assume that otherwise the prosecutor's office would more clearly indicate their absence.

Sources

The prosecutor's office revealed facts of improper blocking of access to sites containing materials recognized as extremist in the educational institution of Kotovsk // Prosecutor's office of the Tambov region. 2019. December 2.
The prosecutor's office of the city of Apatity revealed violations in the field of combating extremism and terrorism in the activities of educational institutions // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Murmansk region. 2019. September 2.
The prosecutor's office of the Dukhovnitsky district conducted an audit of the implementation of legislation aimed at protecting the morality of minors // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Saratov region. 2019. July 18.
Prosecutors uncover violations of legislation on combating extremist activity in educational institutions // Website of the prosecutor's office of the Chelyabinsk region. 2019. July 15.
The prosecutor's office of the Maiminsky district took measures in the field of countering extremism // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Altai. 2019. June 5.
The prosecutor's office of the city of Gorno-Altaisk has taken measures to protect children from information that is harmful to health and moral development // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Altai. May 27, 2019
The prosecutor's office of the Krasnokutsk district conducted an audit of the implementation of legislation on the protection of children from information that is harmful to their health and development // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Saratov region. May 24, 2019
Elimination of violations of legislation on countering extremism // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Magadan Region. May 20, 2019
The prosecutor's office of the Mezhevsky district revealed violations of the law on the protection of children from information harmful to their health // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Kostroma Region. May 6, 2019
Principal of Miass college fined for violating legislation on protecting children from information harmful to their health // Website of the prosecutor's office of the Chelyabinsk region. April 30, 2019
The Gryazinskaya inter-district prosecutor's office checked the availability of access to information prohibited for distribution in crowded places // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Lipetsk Region. April 17, 2019
The Arkhangelsk Transport Prosecutor's Office has taken measures to eliminate violations of the law in the field of protecting children from information harmful to their health // Website of the North-Western Transport Prosecutor's Office. April 16, 2019
At the request of the prosecutor, violations of the law regarding the protection of schoolchildren from harmful information in the educational process were eliminated // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Mari El. February 6, 2019
BODIES OF THE REGIONAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE PROTECT THE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS OF CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET ON A CONSTANT BASIS // Website of the prosecutor's office of the Vologda region. 2019. January 28.
Sergach inter-district prosecutor's office demands from the local administration to eliminate the violation of the rights of minors // Website of the prosecutor's office of the Nizhny Novgorod region. 2019. January 10.