The Shameful Regiment: who cyberbullied Russian children in Estonia
The Russian-speaking population in the Baltic States and migrants from Russia complain about bullying of their children on social networks and messengers. Anonymous channels and communities post personal data and photos of Russian teenagers with offensive labels, comments, and threats. Read more about the problem in the Izvestia article.
Because it's Russian
Russian-speaking users of social networks and messengers from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia report increased cases of cyberbullying of their children. The mechanism of harassment suggests organization. The admins of the channels reach out to Russian-speaking children and offer to join a closed community where they promise to tell the teenager something interesting. After the child gets into the group, a lot of negativity is poured out on him, his photos with offensive inscriptions and collages are shown. Children are being intimidated and insulted based on ethnicity.
Several channels have already been blocked, but resources are quickly reappearing, often under the same names. Cyberbullying is especially widespread in Estonia.
— In Latvia and Lithuania, activity is still lower, but, according to the channel authors, they are preparing for a "large-scale launch." The Latvian and Estonian police are already aware of the situation," one of the Telegram channels reported.
Meanwhile, no specific actions have been reported by national law enforcement agencies to protect the interests of Russian children in the Baltic countries.
Familiar handwriting
While the Baltic law enforcement officers pretend that nothing is happening, the Russian police are actively fighting provocations against Russian children inside the country. In particular, the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation managed to deanonymize one of the administrators of the network of destructive channels for Russian schoolchildren — he turned out to be a citizen of Ukraine Yaroslav Ovsyuk, hiding under the pseudonym Belaya Rosa. A few years ago, he and his team created numerous channels and groups linked to specific schools across Russia. Local schoolchildren were cunningly manipulated into using these resources to engage in illegal activities.
These groups also reported on alleged terrorist attacks being prepared in schools to create nervousness and panic among students and teachers, as well as to interfere with the work of special services. Thus, Ovsyuk and his accomplices destabilized the situation in educational institutions and looked for agents of influence within the adolescent environment.
Ovsyuk himself is considered an adept of the international terrorist movement "Maniacs. The cult of murders." The provocateur left the territory of Ukraine and lived in the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.
Last spring, Ovsyuk was charged in absentia under several articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Izvestia reported that the accused later switched to Russian-speaking residents of Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. It is possible that the Baltic scenario is also based on Ovsyuk's experience.
Questions to the administration
IT experts agree that the administration of some social networks encourages the illegal activities of certain users by their inaction.
"Social networks most often respond to complaints," Vladimir Zykov, director of the Association of Professional Users of Social Networks and Messengers, told Izvestia. — And in the case of Telegram, there should be a certain number of complaints. Therefore, it is not always easy to find such channels.
In his opinion, Telegram has never been known to protect its users from harassment.
— Instead of banning both the channel and the owner, they ban only the channel, — says Zykov. — Plus, the local authorities should hold these people accountable. But somehow they are not up to it. We can only hope that we are not dealing with tacit support.
The expert also drew attention to possible biased moderation in foreign social networks, when Russian—speaking service employees may be Ukrainians or natives of the Baltic States and have a negative attitude towards Russians. Such a situation, for example, had previously developed on Facebook (owned by Meta, whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), recalled Zykov.
Prevention and trust
Cybersecurity experts advise parents and teenagers to be especially vigilant, as well as to use available security tools on social networks to protect personal information.
"It is important to regularly check your privacy settings, restrict access to personal information, and use strong passwords," a representative of the specialized police unit for combating IT crimes told Izvestia. — Manipulators can not only humiliate a child, but also push him to various kinds of illegal actions — to take money from his parents, set fire to critical infrastructure, act as a courier when funds are fraudulently stolen, and so on. It is important to spend more time with your child and be in a trusting relationship with him. It is also worth realizing that the parent is responsible for the actions of his child in the Internet space. And remember that online bullying significantly increases the risk of suicide for a minor victim of cyberbullying.
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