Protection of the Rights and Freedoms of Minors in the Digital Space

The problem of ensuring information security is currently urgent for the Russian Federation as well as for the whole world. The number of cyber-threats is increasing at a great speed, and they concern not only private citizens, but also organizations, the community and the state. Special attention should be paid to the information security of children and teenagers. Minors are most susceptible to negative influences on the Internet, they risk becoming victims of cyberbullying, fraud and illegal access to personal data. Common threats to the information security of minors include a constant increase in the number of sites with aggressive or illegal content, including those inciting to suicide or abuse of drugs and psychoactive substances, as well as cyber-stalking or virtual sexual harassment. The information security of minors in the digital space is a complex issue, whose successful solution requires a consolidation of legal and information resources. The article analyzes Russian and foreign experience of ensuring the information security of minors. The authors summarize research approaches to solving the problem of protecting minors on the Internet. They present a classification of the most urgent cyber-threats: software-technical (intentional dissemination of viruses and Trojan software), economic (theft and sale of credit card details, phishing-attacks, hacking of payment accounts), and content (public dissemination of any materials, including illegal ones, on the Internet). The authors also examine legal, social and technical measures of ensuring the information security of minors and suggest changes to the current legislation which regulates the information security of minors. The authors also study specific methods of solving this task and outline a number of measures aimed at protecting the rights and freedoms of minors in the digital space (thematic prevention classes for minors, development of special information protection software).