MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. The majority of young people aged between 18 and 24 support the idea of banning access to social networking websites for children under the age of 14, a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center showed on Monday.
"The idea of banning access to social networks for children under 14 has enjoyed support among the population, with 62% of Russians supporting the proposed move. In the youngest group of respondents (aged 18-24) this figure is 67%, which is more than among those aged 60 and over (60%). One-third of those polled (35%) disagreed with the initiative, those were primarily residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg (47%)," the pollster said.
According to the survey, 52% of those polled said their attitude towards the proposal to register in social networks with passports was negative. This share is significantly higher among active Internet users than among those who do not go online (58% and 36% percent respectively). The pollster added that 39% of those polled (48% of respondents aged between 25 and 34) said the move was understandable.
"The high level of support for initiatives to take additional legislative regulatory measures in social networks stems primarily from the fact that today Russians see the Internet as a source of a wide array of security threats ranging from fraud to the creation of suicide groups that involve, above all, young people. Even gaining this experience once or becoming a witness of a tragedy, people come to realize that the new communication environment that is creeping into society, just as the reality we are familiar with, need legislative regulation, including in the work of special supervisory bodies," said head of the pollster’s information policy and communication technologies division, Kirill Rodin.
The survey was conducted on April 6, 2017, on the basis of telephone interviews with 600 respondents. The margin of error does not exceed 4.5%.