Russian National Consultation on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Moscow, Russian Federation

1-2 March 2004

Russia is now one of the main producers of child pornography in the world, as new research on the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Moscow, St Petersburg and Irkustk reveals. The research also indicates that Russia is seriously affected by all forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), registering alarming incidences of child prostitution and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

The research findings will be discussed at a national consultation in Moscow on 1-2 March 2004. The conference, which will gather together Government representatives and international and non-governmental organizations, will also plan appropriate counter-action to deal with all forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in the Russian Federation. The consultation has been organised by child rights advocacy group ECPAT International in cooperation with local NGO Sisters and is supported by the Russian Ministry of Labour and Social Development.

Alarming rates

Experts say that 25% of the pornography on global Internet websites contains child pornography. Among these, more than 50% contain child pornography from Russia. Although the precise number of children involved in the production of Russian pornography is unknown, experts report there are some tens of thousands of such children.

The business is run by criminal networks that manufacture, distribute and export (to Germany, Britain, the United States, Italy, Canada and elsewhere) photographs and video records of a pornographic nature, including violent sexual assaults on children.

The production and consumption of pornographic products featuring children is especially pronounced in Moscow and St Petersburg. In the mid-1990s, pornographic images were mostly imported into Russia. They were expensive and distributed in narrow circles. Nowadays, one can buy videocassettes with child pornography at practically any railway station or marketplace in these towns. Prices for child pornography on the Moscow market are practically the same as for a licensed film cassette, 165 to 170 roubles (US$6-7); huge turnover makes these low prices possible. A well-known 12-part pornographic film called Malyavki (Little Ones) features boys as young as 6 years old. The popular Russian web search system Jandex yields no less than 405 sites and 19,864 pages in reply to the request for “child porn in Moscow”.

Inadequate legislation a contributing factor

Criminal legislation in Russia is not sufficient and effective in combating the production and distribution of pornographic material, especially via the Internet. Experts report numerous cases of websites being relocated from countries with strong legislation and advanced practices against Internet pornography to countries with vague legal and investigating systems, including Russia. Given the trans-national character of many transactions involving pornographic materials, collaboration between countries to counter child pornography must be strengthened. As well, it is critical there be harmony among national laws and legal systems for combating the involvement of children in the pornography industry.

Easy coercion and low-cost production

The spread of pornography, especially via the Internet, in post-communist Russia can be explained by high demand as well as by the low costs for starting up such businesses, compared with those to start a “normal” business in the country’s unfavourable economic conditions. Child pornography is usually produced by small criminal groups, two or three persons, each performing their specific duties: a cameraman, an agent to coerce children, and a distributor to contact buyers in Russia and abroad.

Children in Russia are being coerced into pornography through many businesses that as a rule operate under the “label” of educational or fitness centres, such as the ”Aphrodite School”, which operated in Vladivostok and Habarovsk as a school for future models. Girls aged 12 to 14 were accepted into this school and then prepared for participation in pornographic films. The procedure for entering the school included a kind of casting for which the girls had to show themselves naked.

The techniques for ‘recruitment’ into the making of pornography are flexible, simple and well-organised. One Russian businessman, who supplied videos to the West featuring children aged between 8 and 14 and was arrested in Moscow in 2000, became acquainted with children from problem families at railway or metro stations; he lured the children to his flat and persuaded them to engage in sex and the making of pornography. The man gave his cassettes to a specialist in computer technology who mounted the pictures and made a soundtrack with classical music. The first 20 minutes were filled with politician Vladimir Žirinovskij’s advertisement clips. The man sold the cassettes to Spain, Italy, the US and other countries, sending them by mail after receiving US$90 per cassette.

Problem varies according to the region

All forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) exist in Russia today: the use of children in prostitution, pornography, sex tourism and trafficking for sexual purposes - both internal and external trafficking. Although the problem of CSEC and trafficking of children is not a new phenomenon for Russia, over the last 10-15 years its forms and diffusion have changed and increased, under the influence of the social, economical and political transition in the country, followed by the development of the entertainment and tourism industry, the increase in trans-national organised crime and a deepening of social problems.

Whereas Moscow and St. Petersburg are the two main centres of child pornography production, St. Petersburg and the North-Western region report a high incidence of child sex tourism. Sex tours to such locations are advertised on the Internet by tourism operators, especially from the neighbouring Scandinavian countries.

Child prostitution is the most widespread form of exploitation in the North-Western region. Individuals close to the children, rather than organised criminal structures, are likely to be the ones who initially arrange this kind of sex abuse and make huge profits from the exploitation of children.

Russia is both a receiving and a sending country when it comes to trafficking, and child trafficking to foreign countries is a well-developed mechanism run by criminal networks. Children are transferred to Western Europe (Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Sweden) as well as to the USA, China, Korea, Japan, Israel and Turkey. Internal trafficking within Russia and the CIS countries (Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan) is widespread owing to rising demand for sex services, including child prostitution, in big cities, particularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. As it does not cost much to transfer children within the country, criminals do not face major financial obstacles during the whole process.

A National Plan of Action is needed
Despite Russia signing and ratifying important international conventions, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, the Russian Federation has not signed other fundamental instruments, for example the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, or the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime (including child pornography on the Internet).

Russia took part in the 2nd World Congress against CSEC in Stockholm in 1996, and is among 159 signatory countries to the resulting Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action, which outlines specific actions to be taken to prevent, protect, rehabilitate and reintegrate child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. However, the Russian Government has not yet developed a National Plan of Action against CSEC, an essential measure to tackle the problem.

The Russian report (1 MB)