MOSCOW — In an effort to combat child porn, the Russian government is seeking experts that can identify Internet content involving minors.
The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) — the state Internet and media watchdog — said the ideal candidate would have a college degree and at least two years’ work experience in medicine, sociology, psychology, philology, culture studies or art history.
Working in teams of two, the child porn cops would field up to 200 requests a day looking for inappropriate content.
The agency is looking for as many candidates as it can find and is reportedly willing to spend $1.4 million a year for the search that ends Nov. 12.
Producing and distributing any type of porn is a crime in Russia, however the distinction between regular porn and child porn is murky, an issue that’s confusing lawmakers
The watchdog agency has had a free hand since 2012 in blacklisting suspected child porn sites or those that advocate suicide or illegal drugs.
However, it’s come under fire for banning some content including the recent shutdown of RedTube.com that contained Japanese anime erotic cartoons considered to be child porn.
According to the Interpol National Central Bureau at the Interior Ministry, the amount of child porn on Russian websites has risen 12-fold in the last four years.
Earlier this year, more than 90 websites registered in Russia have been closed for containing child porn.
“We have shut down over 90 websites in Russia for the dissemination of illicit content. Those are the websites that have been confirmed as carrying child pornography,” Tatyana Shishova, a ministry spokesperson, said.