ON CHANGES IN LEGISLATION REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

On July 17, 2025, a number of provisions of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Amendments to Laws on Ensuring Children's Rights" came into force. For this purpose, the law provides for the adjustment of certain provisions of the Law "On the Rights of the Child".

          At the same time, significant attention is paid to improving the protection of children's rights from information that harms their health and development.

    In accordance with Article 37-1 of the Law "On the Rights of the Child", information that harms the health and development of children includes the following information capable of negatively affecting the health, physical, moral and spiritual development of children of a certain age category:

• causing a desire to consume alcoholic, low-alcohol beverages, beer, consume narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues, toxic or other intoxicating substances, tobacco products;
• inciting to commit a crime or other socially dangerous act, including prostitution, begging, vagrancy, participation in gambling, actions related to the production, distribution of pornographic materials or objects of a pornographic nature;
• positively evaluating a crime or idealizing criminals, encouraging behavior that infringes on human dignity, including acts of violence against people or animals;
• depicting mockery or humiliation of a person or group of people in connection with ethnic origin, national, racial, religious, linguistic, gender affiliation, beliefs or views, social status, illness;
• encouraging or positively evaluating cruelty, physical, psychological, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, sexual relations involving children;
• inciting to inflict bodily harm or suicide, describing means or circumstances of suicide;
• containing methods or other materials on ways of manufacturing objects dangerous to human life and health and their use;

encouraging habits that contradict the formation of a healthy lifestyle;

containing profanity and expressions;

discrediting the institution of family and marital and family relations, aimed at promoting homosexual relations, sex change, pedophilia, childlessness;

of a frightening nature, including presented in the form of an image or description in a manner that degrades human dignity of death, accident, incident, disaster, illness and (or) their consequences;

containing pornographic materials and (or) erotica;

obtained without the consent of one of the parents (guardians, trustees) and containing information about a child who has suffered as a result of illegal actions (inaction), including personal data of such a child, their parents (guardians, trustees).

In order to ensure the protection of children from information that harms their health and development, the dissemination of information products in the form of mass media products, printed publications, audiovisual works, phonograms, games, including games with electronic displays, computer games and programs on any type of media, toys that are reproductions of characters from computer games and films, or in the form of information disseminated through cultural events (hereinafter referred to as information products) is prohibited without assigning an age category mark, which is a sound and (or) visual warning indicating the age category of children among whom the dissemination of information products is allowed, except in cases where the presence of such a mark is not mandatory in accordance with legislative acts.

Depending on the subject matter, genre, content and artistic design of the information product, the peculiarities of perception of the information contained therein by children of a certain age, as well as the possibility of harm to the health and development of children by the information contained therein, the following age category marks are assigned to the information product:

"0+" - without age restrictions (universal);

"6+" - intended for persons who have reached the age of 6;

"12+" - intended for persons aged 12 and over;

"16+" - intended for persons aged 16 and over;

"18+" - intended for persons aged 18 and over.

The criteria for determining the age category of children among whom the distribution of information products is permitted are established by the Government of the Republic of Belarus.

The age category mark, in the manner established by the Government of the Republic of Belarus, is assigned to information products, except for cases provided for by the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Culture:

produced in the territory of the Republic of Belarus - by legal entities, individual entrepreneurs engaged in the production of information products;

distributed through cultural events - by organizers of cultural events.

For the distribution of information products produced outside the Republic of Belarus within the territory of the Republic of Belarus, which do not have an age category mark assigned in accordance with the procedure and criteria established by the Government of the Republic of Belarus, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs engaged in the distribution of information products have the right to assign such a mark to them independently, except for cases provided for by the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Culture.

Other features of assigning an age category mark to information products and their distribution, aimed at protecting children from information that harms their health and development, are established by the legislation on culture, mass media, advertising, and publishing.

In order to protect children from information that harms their health and development, distributed on the global computer network Internet, owners of computer clubs, internet cafes, other places providing collective user access to the global computer network Internet, and educational institutions are obliged to apply administrative, organizational measures, hardware and software tools that prevent the distribution of information harmful to children's health and development among children.

Parents (guardians, custodians) are obliged to protect children from information distributed on the global computer network Internet that harms their health and development, including by explaining the harm of such information to children and monitoring children's use of information resources of the global computer network Internet.

The protection of children from information distributed on the global computer network Internet that harms their health and development can be implemented by parents (guardians, custodians) by concluding an agreement with Internet service providers, in the manner prescribed by law, for the provision of services to restrict access to information on the global computer network Internet, or by applying organizational measures, hardware and software tools that prevent the distribution of information harmful to children's health and development among children.

State bodies, state and other organizations must provide informational and consultative assistance to parents (guardians, custodians) in implementing measures to protect children from information distributed on the global computer network Internet that harms their health and development.

Telecommunication service providers, when concluding a telecommunication service agreement, must inform users about the services provided to restrict access to information on the global computer network Internet, as well as about hardware and software tools that prevent the distribution of information harmful to children's health and development among children.