Donetsk, Sep 27 - DAN. The Donetsk People’s Republic parliament on Friday approved amendments to the Criminal Code envisioning a penalty of 15 years in prison for inciting teenagers to suicide.
“Various groups and communities that incite adolescents to suicide or behaviour dangerous to their life and health have appeared in the recent time; this legislation combats such actions on the Internet and envisions criminal liability,” parliament speaker Vladimir Bedyovka told journalists.
All the 89 deputies present at the session voted for the document. “Encouraging minors to join ‘death groups,’ is a very serious Internet crime,” head of the parliament committee on criminal and administrative legislation Alexey Zhiguilin said.
The document has to be signed by the DPR head to come into effect.
At present, DPR law-enforcement bodies do not file criminal proceedings over incitement to suicide as it is not covered by DPR legislation.
“Death groups” are online communities that use suggestion techniques or neurolinguistic programming on people, mostly adolescents, to challenge them to commit suicide.