Russia’s LGBT teen website banned

Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecoms, Information and Mass Communications) has entered into the register of banned resources the site of the project which supports LGBT teenagers, reports Interfax.

"Roskomnadzor has entered into the unified register of prohibited information the website of the project "Children-404" on the basis of the decision of the Central district court of Barnaul", – said the press-secretary of the Department Vadim Ampelonsky.

According to the court, a shut-down of the resource was initiated by the Prosecutor of Barnaul. In his report he indicated that the site monitoring by the Prosecutor's office revealed the location of the freely available information which explicitly promotes non-traditional sexual relations among minors, namely homosexuality among boys, lesbianism among girls, bisexual relationships among children. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, such information is prohibited among children.

The project spokesperson objected to satisfaction of the requirements at the court session and said that it is necessary to take into account not only the subjects of the project but also its objectives, one of which, in the authors’ opinion, is to prevent teenage suicides.

The court sided with the prosecution and decided to recognize the information that promotes non-traditional sexual relationships among minors on the Internet page of the project "Children-404" prohibited for distribution in Russia.
On the basis of this decision, Roskomnadzor entered the website into the register of banned resources, and notified its owners about the need to remove illegal content. Otherwise, the website will be blocked.