Technology-facilitated harm to individuals and society: Cases of minor’s self-produced sexual content in Russia

Technology- facilitated harm to individuals and society has become one of common realities of the Third Millennium. The digital world unlimited potential can both serve and destroy human lives. The paper aims to explore the situation in Russia with regard to cases when minor’s self-generated sexual content becomes subject to others’ use and abuse. The research sample integrated academic papers on the theme under study, items of the Russian legislation relevant for the topic under study, and open-access publications on cases, journalists’ investigations and considerations with regard to the topic under study. The research design rested on qualitative approach and integrated a number of methods and techniques, namely theoretical and empirical analysis, case-based techniques, relevant text corpus-base content analysis through manual coding and computer-based check for words frequency, inducive pathway for data interpretation and concluding generalizations. The study confirmed the hypothesis on the need for a comprehensive approach to consider such cases as subject to multidimensional analysis. In the course of the analysis key trends in academic literature with regard to the topic of the case under study were identified. Russian legislation and law enforcement background with regard to the topic of the case under study were analysed and interpreted. Features of self-produced child pornography phenomenon within diverse societal dimensions beyond purely legal issues were subject to analysis and interpretation. © 2019 by Advance Scientific Research.