Russian kindergarten teacher Yevgenia Chudnovets is serving a 5-month prison sentence for reposting a video showing a child being tormented in a children’s camp. The 3-second video of the naked child being tormented resulted in the police intervening and the eventual imprisonment of two camp officials – and of Chudnovets. She was charged with ‘circulating child pornography’ for reposting the video which she says she did to draw attention to the abuse.
Chudnovets was jailed on Nov. 8, 2016 for this one repost on VKontakte of the video showing a child at the Katai children’s camp standing naked, with his back to the camera. Since the staff member on the video was jailed for 3 years and the camp manager for 6, there was clearly a need to alert the authorities to the abuse taking place. It may well be that a social network repost is not the best way to do this, however the prosecution, claimed, and a court obediently accepted, that a single repost which, according to several reports, clearly called for an investigation into such treatment of children constituted circulation of child pornography.
