Pixel time limit: how to send an aggressor to jail for cyberbullying
The Novgorod District Court sentenced a local resident to 12 years in prison for purposefully harassing a 16-year-old girl from Ufa. Cyberbullying on his part turned out to be so large—scale that the victim was close to suicide - fortunately, the mother managed to prevent it. The verdict, passed on four grounds at once, can become an important precedent in the fight against cyberbullying, experts say — so far there have been practically no such court decisions. For more information, see the "Izvestia" article.
What was the aggressor convicted for?
The verdict against a resident of the Novgorod region, a native of Lipetsk, was announced in the Novgorod District Court at the end of last week. He was charged with committing crimes on several grounds, including driving a child to suicide and false terrorism with aggravating circumstances.
According to the court, the man was a member of a social media community dedicated to the computer game Minecraft, and it was there that he chose a minor from Ufa as a victim. Using open sources on the Web, he established her age, place of residence and education, phone number, found photos, and also collected information about family members. And from April to November 2024, absolutely confident in his anonymity, he engaged in systematic mental violence.
The man, as noted in court, sent false information about the teenager, published photos of both the minor and her younger sister, hired people to put up flyers near her place of residence, wrote cynical messages and threats on her behalf. The charge of false terrorism arose due to the fact that the defendant, on behalf of the girl, warned about the preparation of bombings in schools and a shopping mall. It got to the point that because of the "calls" about mining, the girl was interrogated for a long time by law enforcement officers. He also created a community on her behalf, where he posted videos of violent scenes of violence against people, animals and their murders. In addition, the man called the place of work of the girl's parents, provoking conflicts.
"All this time, he demanded from her on a social network to commit suicide as the only condition for him to stop his criminal actions," the court said.
The accused almost reached his goal, but the girl was saved by her mother, who noticed something was wrong in time and prevented her.
As a result, the court found the man guilty and, according to the totality of the crimes, sentenced him to 12 years of imprisonment in a high-security colony. The verdict has not yet entered into force and can be appealed.
The severity of the punishment, according to experts, could also be influenced by publicity in the media: this story was told last year. It was reported that we are talking about 20-year-old Mikhail Shalimov at the time of publication, who was offended that 16-year-old Diana blocked him in a group on one of the social networks. The publication describes the large-scale actions that the young man took: he created groups on the social network and posted a video on behalf of the girl, where she allegedly burns a cat alive. This led to users writing to Diana, threatening violence. In addition, on behalf of Diana's father, Mikhail sent images of genitals to children.
Have there been such sentences before
In the media, the current court decision was called the first sentence with a real term for cyberbullying. """" However, it is very difficult to assert this, because, as the experts interviewed by Izvestia noted, in Russia, in principle, there is no such basis for criminal cases as "cyberbullying" or "harassment."
"There have been separate cases of suicide (Article 110 of the Criminal Code) before, but they usually concerned an offline context or mixed situations, rather than prolonged targeted online harassment as the main method of influence," explained Lidia Malygina, an expert at the Presidential Academy.
Until now, many bullying cases, according to her, either did not reach court, or were classified as less serious crimes — insults, threats — which led to suspended sentences or fines. Meanwhile, Anna Makarchuk, director of the Jewish Museum's Tolerance Center and an expert of the federal anti-bullying project "Everyone is Important," stressed that there are a negligible number of cases of administrative penalties, especially in relation to the scale of the problem.
"However," Maria Afonina, president of the charity organization "Zhuravlik" and chief expert psychologist of the NET Bullying program, said that there was simply no publicity about the cases.
"Nevertheless, certain court decisions were made in all cases, regardless of whether there was public attention or not," she told Izvestia. — And in recent years, there have been more convictions.
In particular, Pavel Azyrkin, head of the Timchenko Foundation's "Child and Adolescent Development" programs, recalled a court decision in Moscow in 2024: then a man received two years in prison for inciting a minor to suicide through social media. At the same time, back in 2007, students who systematically beat a classmate and posted recordings on the Internet were convicted in Kurgan — the organizer received two years of probation, and the rest of the participants were sentenced to compulsory labor.
There are indeed many more cases of "physical" bullying combined with cyberbullying, confirmed Rostislav Prokopishin, a psychologist and lecturer at the Moscow State Pedagogical University. He recalled the case of a 14-year-old schoolboy in Kalmykia who was systematically bullied by a group of high school students. In March 2025, they broke into the teenager's house, beat, humiliated and recorded what was happening on video, which they then posted online — and a few days later the boy committed suicide.
"Until some time ago, huge resources were needed to investigate crimes using the Internet, now it is already becoming a routine investigative practice," the Izvestia source added.
What will change after the verdict
Even though there is no case law in Russia, experts consider the new court decision to be very important. According to Lidia Malygina, the verdict can strengthen the legal boundaries of the digital space as a zone of state responsibility and become a turning point for the law enforcement practice of Internet harassment in Russia. Investigators and prosecutors now have a precedent for stricter qualifications, especially when there is a pattern and duration of harassment, anonymous accounts and fakes are used, as well as documented consequences: suicide attempts, hospitalization, and visits to psychologists, the editorial interlocutor added.
In turn, the expert of the Popular Front, Anna Domchenko, called this verdict "the first loud signal of the inevitability of severe punishment." And Anna Makarchuk noted that such a court decision is important from the point of view of drawing attention to the problem of cruelty on the Internet and its punishability in general.
"This is what seems to me to be the cornerstone in solving the problem of harassment: the understanding that these actions can and will have consequences for the aggressor," the Izvestia interlocutor emphasized. — The creation of a special law on harassment remains an urgent need in this sense. Without it, the bullying phenomenon remains ephemeral and virtually elusive to legislation.
Is there more cyberbullying
According to the Russian Peace Foundation's monitoring center "Security 2.0", in 2024, the number of cyberbullying incidents in Russia increased by 15% compared to 2023, and in 2025, another 14% more high-profile episodes of harassment involving minors were recorded on the Internet. The number of incidents and their public response are growing, Lidia Malygina said.
""Every 10th child interviewed," as noted by Andrey Sidenko, head of Kaspersky Lab's online child safety department, referring to the study "Adults and Children on the Internet," received offensive messages or memes on the Internet, or came across the fact that groups or publications were created on the Network specifically to offend him.
"At the same time, the real numbers may be higher, since children are not always ready to tell adults about cases of online bullying," he told Izvestia.
According to a survey conducted by "Mikhailov and Partners. Analysis" conducted in January 2025, one in five (19%) of the surveyed schoolchildren was subjected to cyberbullying, but 44% of the victims did not tell anyone about it.
At the same time, cyberbullying as a whole is becoming one of the key forms of harassment, Pavel Azyrkin drew attention.
— There is less physical violence — it is flowing from offline to online. The Internet is becoming an additional space for aggression," the expert said.
How to prevent cyberbullying
Andrey Sidenko admitted that it is difficult to completely eliminate the risk of encountering cyberbullying, but some measures can help reduce the risks and possible consequences. It is important to follow the basic rules of digital security. It is not necessary to publish excessive information about yourself in the public domain: phone number, residential address, information about school, regular routes and places where a person often visits. Individually, such data may seem insignificant, but information from various open sources can be compared and used to further harass a person.
— If bullying has already begun, you should not engage in an altercation with the aggressor or try to respond in kind. This can only contribute to the continuation of the conflict," the expert added.
It is also important to discuss with your child what cyberbullying is and how to act if they encounter it. He should know that in such a situation, you can turn to adults and tell them about what is happening. It is already the task of parents to create conditions under which children will not be afraid to report unpleasant or frightening situations on the Internet.
The editorial interlocutor did not recommend immediately deleting messages and correspondence: first, you need to save confirmations of what is happening — for example, take screenshots of messages, publications and profiles from which harassment is conducted, save links and other available data. After that, you can block the aggressor and contact the platform's support service with a complaint about the relevant content or account.
— If we are talking about threats to life and health or the situation goes beyond an online conflict, you should contact law enforcement agencies and provide the collected materials. If bullying is related to the school environment, it is also worth informing the class teacher or the administration of the educational institution," Andrei Sidenko added.
An ironclad argument in court will be if screenshots, audio recordings of calls, etc. are notarized, Anna Makarchuk added. In addition to contacting the police, you can also file a civil claim in court for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation and for compensation for moral damage.
"At the same time, it is important to interrupt toxic communication as early as possible — to leave the group, block the aggressor, and try not to access resources where harassment occurs," she clarified. — And you need to take care not only about justice, but also about yourself, about your mental state against the background of bullying.
In the story of Diana from Ufa, during the discussion of the verdict, it is very important not to lose her future life, safety and the opportunity to recover and trust people again, Pavel Azyrkin emphasized. And also to understand what conditions have developed so that a young man sentenced to 12 years would, in principle, consider such treatment of others acceptable. This will help in the prevention of cyberbullying as such.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
