The creators of the "groups of death" will receive up to six years

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will be supplemented by new articles for inciting minors to suicide. They provide punishment for the creation of "groups of death" in social networks. The corresponding amendments were adopted by the State Duma in the third reading.

The explanatory note to the document states that "new types of inclination to commit suicide or facilitate the commission of suicide were not previously predicted by science, were not promptly evaluated by criminologists, and in fact adopted a wide scale, being beyond the criminal legal assessment."

The changes will affect such articles of the Criminal Code as 110.1 “Declining to commit suicide or facilitating the commission of suicide” and 110.2 “Organization of activities associated with encouraging citizens to commit suicide”.

The performance of these actions in respect of minors through public communication via the Internet is considered an aggravating circumstance. If any of the teens attempt suicide under the influence of materials from the Internet, their authors will incur criminal penalties. The amendment states that the inclination to suicide of children, pregnant women can be punished with imprisonment of up to four years. If suicide occurred - up to six years.

In addition, the Criminal Code will contain Article 151.2 on the involvement of minors in the commission of unlawful acts that are deliberately dangerous to the lives of victims. Convicted under this article (for example, the organizers of dangerous "games" in social networks) can lose their freedom for up to three years.

Examples of such actions are the creation of “death groups” in social networks, the organization of “run or die” games, as well as sending messages to children with instructions “how to become a fairy” by opening gas at home. In addition, the responsibility will be borne by persons who attract minors to such extreme hobbies as "catching" and "roofing."

In May 2016, it became known that dozens of children committed suicide after joining the “groups of death” social network “VKontakte”. In November, in the case of "groups of death", one of the administrators of such public groups, Philip Budeikin, known in the network as Philip Lys, was arrested. According to the investigators, the actions of the young man influenced the decision of 15 teenagers to commit suicide, five more were in the risk zone, but they managed to avoid death, Lenta.ru reminds .

The bill passed by the State Duma was introduced by a group of deputies led by the vice-speaker, United Russia’s Irina Yarovaya in March 2017. She said that over the past year, 720 minors committed suicide, and suicide propaganda was carried out via the Internet. The initiative was publicly supported by President Vladimir Putin.

Today, all 408 deputies who attended the meeting of the State Duma voted for the adoption of amendments to the Criminal Code.