Russian lower house passes third reading of bill banning child-free propaganda

MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) has passed the third reading of a bill banning the public promotion of a child-free way of life.
The document was submitted to the State Duma in September by a group of legislators and senators led by the chairs of both houses, Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin.
The legislation stipulates preventing the distribution of information promoting voluntary childlessness online, through the media, movies and advertisements.
In particular, the Law “On information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information” is supposed to be amended to demand that social media platforms monitor content to detect child-free propaganda. Lawmakers also suggest that the law “On Mass Media” should ban the use of any mass media to promote voluntary childlessness.
The bill also says that advertisements should not contain information promoting such ideas.
Volodin stressed that “women who decide not to have children won’t fall under the law.” The Duma speaker is confident, however, that everything needs to be done to make sure that new generations of Russians “grow up with a focus on traditional family values.”