Putin and Patriarch Kirill want to ‘help’ young people use the internet

The Russian president recommends producing content aimed at the moral and spiritual education of youth. The Orthodox patriarch urges the use of "media activities" to attract people to the charitable actions of ecclesial bodies. Enhance patriotism among the younger generations. Invade the internet with messages, rather than controlls.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - President Vladimir Putin has instructed the federal government to carry out an analysis on the internet to learn about consumption preferences and the behavioral characteristics of the young audience. The Kremlin press office cited the fact by presenting a document that expresses the concerns of state policy in the defense of the family and children.

The presidential directive asks for responses by December 1 to the survey called "State inquiry into the influence of the world of information on the formation of opinions of the younger". In the document it is recommended to create a coordination center, on a non-commercial basis, for the production of contents aimed at moral and spiritual education of the youth, and at their dissemination on the internet.

One of the crucial dimensions of the effectiveness of presidential politics and government is the growth of patriotic feelings among young people. According to the agency RosBisnesConsulting (RBK), the Kremlin sources explain this approach as the "need to build the future of the country", considering that adolescents are the future voters.

In early September, commenting on the protests of young people in Moscow, Putin said that the youth have the right to express their views: "Sometimes this leads to positive results, because it shakes the competent authorities on crucial issues." He also observed that the State has a duty to do everything possible "so that the youth may be helped to find their place in life and in society".

Even the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) - who even in the past few months had declared that "the Antichrist is affirmed through the internet" - in September encouraged the social workers of the Church to use more "contemporary practices of media activity, such as actions on the Internet, flash-mobs and marathons "to attract people to the charitable actions of ecclesial bodies, and also to involve young people more.

The attempts of the past months to limit and "control" the Internet within the limits of the Russian space, the subject of various parliamentary initiatives in recent months, they have not actually produced any results, being too complicated and expensive to make. By now censorship, state and religious authorities prefer the active propaganda of a "healthier" and morally acceptable internet.