MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. The destructive influence of the Internet leads to tragedies such as the recent university shooting in Perm, Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said in an interview with TASS.
According to him, the main causes of such incidents are rooted in teenagers failing to reach an appropriate educational and cultural level. "The internet, television and social media are now responsible for education, while they promote violence, indifference to the problems of one’s peers and immorality. We need to drag children out of the World Wide Web instead of using government money to plunge them into the Internet," Bastrykin pointed out.
"The destructive information that teenagers get online makes them view violence as something natural and normal, besides, they can see that news outlets and social media turn attackers into heroes," he pointed out. "That poses a great danger," Bastrykin noted. In his view, teenagers look to computer game characters "who solve problems by simply eliminating their opponents." "A lot of negative online content has been added to that now. Bloggers chasing after fame and fortune film videos showing people being tortured and make questionable moves, sometimes breaking the law. Millions of teenagers see their posts that can encourage them to follow this bad example," the Investigative Committee’s chief stressed.
He added that even theatrical productions and movies financed by the government and allegedly created with good intentions sometimes distorted classic literature. "What kind of values can teenagers develop after watching it all? The answer is clear. Often times, when reading news about an exhibition of a theater production that enraged the public, I hand down instructions to look into it because it is about our values without which we will lose our humanity," Bastrykin emphasized.