Russia

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

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Russia's general age-gating regime is Federal Law No. 436-FZ 'On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development' (29 December 2010, as amended), which classifies all information products into five age tiers (under 6, 6+, 12+, 16+, and prohibited for children) and requires producers and distributors to self-classify and label accordingly; most internet content is exempted from the physical labeling duty, but a website may voluntarily carry a machine-readable age mark, and an 'audiovisual service' (a defined term reaching video-on-demand and similar platforms) must classify itself and must prevent minors from accessing content in the prohibited-for-children category.

Live entertainment events restricted to adults require the organizer to check a government-issued identity document where a visitor's age is in doubt.

Separately, Federal Law No. 149-FZ Art. 10.6 imposes a content-monitoring duty, rather than an access-restriction duty, on the owner of any social network with more than 500,000 Russia-based daily users, requiring it to monitor for and act on child sexual abuse material, drug-related content, suicide-related content, and material recruiting minors into unlawful or dangerous acts.

Neither statute conditions general website access to adults-only material on age verification at the point of access; no dedicated adult-content age-verification statute or app-store age-verification statute has been located.

Instruments on record

Federal Law No. 149-FZ, Article 10.6, Social Network Minor-Protection Monitoring Duty

In force

Federal Law No. 149-FZ, Art. 10.6 (added 2020)

Effective 2021-02-01 · Applies to private

Article 10.6, added by Federal Law No. 530-FZ of 30 December 2020, applies to the owner of a Russian-language (or Russian minority-language) website, information system, or program that lets users distribute information through personal pages, where daily access exceeds 500,000 Russia-based internet users (a 'social network owner').

It requires that owner to monitor the social network for, among other things, child sexual abuse material and advertisements recruiting minors as performers in pornographic events, drug-related content, suicide-related content, and material inducing minors into unlawful acts that endanger their life or health, and to publish an annual report on complaint handling and monitoring results.

Source: Full text of law

Federal Law No. 436-FZ, Information-Product Classification and Minor-Access Regime

In force

Federal Law No. 436-FZ, Arts. 6, 11, 12, 14

Effective 2012-09-01 · Applies to both

Article 6 requires the producer or distributor of an information product to self-classify it, before it enters circulation in Russia, into one of five age categories: for children under 6, for children 6 and older, for children 12 and older, for children 16 and older, or prohibited for children. Article 12 sets the corresponding age marks (0+, 6+, 12+, 16+, 18+) and their minimum display size.

Article 11 requires the age mark on most information products before circulation, but exempts information distributed over telecommunications networks including the Internet other than registered network media and audiovisual services, and requires an event organizer to check an identity document establishing age where there is doubt that an attendee at an adults-only event has reached majority.

Article 14 lets an unregistered website voluntarily carry a machine-readable age mark under its own self-classification, but requires an audiovisual service to classify itself and to ensure minors cannot access content in the prohibited-for-children category.

Articles 6, 11, 12 and 14 all came into force on 1 September 2012 under the Act's own commencement clause in Article 23; Article 14, though set out anew by Federal Law No. 139-FZ of 28 July 2012 before the Act itself came into force, took effect together with Articles 6, 11 and 12 on that same day.

Age threshold	18
Verification methods	self declaration, gov id

Source: Full text of law