MOSCOW, February 15 (RAPSI) – Russian lawmakers have submitted a draft bill to ban beauty pageants featuring children.
The bill prohibits events that include any evaluation of appearance from involving children if participation could have an adverse effect on a child’s physical, mental and moral development or result in sexual abuse.
The proposed fines for allowing children to take part in beauty pageants would range from 4,000 rubles ($114) for individuals to 1 million rubles ($28,500) for corporations. A violation by the latter could lead to the suspension of a business license for up to 90 days.
In the explanatory note, the bill’s authors – State Duma deputies Alexei Zhuravlyov (United Russia party) and Sergei Zhigaryov (LDPR) – said a similar ban has already been imposed by the legislative council in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory and introduced in France last September.
The lawmakers also noted that, according to psychologists and teachers, participation in beauty pageants can cause damage to the mental and sometimes physical health of children and can form a distorted understanding of beauty.