OREANDA-NEWS. November 18, 2009. Representatives of COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (OJSC COMSTAR-UTS), major provider of broadband Internet-access in Russia, took part in International conference “Child Safety on the Internet – Prevention, Education and Cooperation” which was held 12-13 November 2009 in Moscow.

Conference organized by the Expert Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk, within the Council of the Baltic Sea States in cooperation with European Commission's Safer Internet Program, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry for Education and Science.

The goal of conference is to gather researchers, representatives of law enforcement authorities, public officers, specialists on protection of children, experts and representatives of Russian, EU and Council of the Baltic Sea States non-governmental organization to share experience and discuss ways to solve problems related to usage of Internet by children. The major issues of conference were: “Child abuse online – reduction of harm through international cooperation” and “Promoting a safer use of online technologies by children – Educational programs, awareness raising and information”.

Within the bounds of first plenary session Andrey Alexeev, Director of Department of service networks, OJSC COMSTAR – United TeleSystems, member of “Friendly Runet” Foundation Coordination Council, presented report on “Internet users’ safety as an important part of corporate social responsibility: practical steps”. In his speech he said the following: “We understand that major part of our audience consists of parents and children and share no illusions on volumes of harmful information in the Internet. COMSTAR like any other operator, follows the principle of network neutrality, but it doesn’t mean lawlessness. For sure, being the leading operator in the market, we can’t help being concerned about wide range of problems due to unlimited access for children to the Internet, as of “adult” and illegal content accessibility. In our opinion, operator regardless of quantity of supported subscribers (we have more than million of them) should not only strictly meet all the requirements of applicable legislature, but also be conscious of its own social responsibility, frankly and consecutively realizing important for users corresponding programs, pay great attention to the issues of Internet-access securing, user instruction and aid”.

Andrey Alexeev detailed COMSTAR-UTS initiatives on Internet users securing and informing: rules contained in subscriber contract-offer; technical means of access control and individual protection (anti-spam, STREAM Anti-virus program, “Parental control” service, personal content filters, etc.), and also public projects supported by COMSTAR (hotline of message reception on child pornography in the Internet, Year of secure Internet in Russia activities and so on). “Useful Internet for us is secure and high-quality access to the network” he resumed.

COMSTAR-UTS Group of Companies PR Director Elena Seregina acted as the chair of the seminar on “ICT businesses supporting child safety online – globally and locally”. Representatives of Russian association of electronic communications (RAEC), Russian centre for Internet Resources (CAIR), companies One.lt (Lithuania) and Online Safety Institute (Czech Republic) took part in it.