VK pointed out the responsibility of large platforms to the children's audience

During his speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026) on June 3, VK Senior Vice President for Media Strategy and Services Development Stepan Kovalchuk spoke about the domestic market and the responsibility of large platforms to children's audiences.

According to him, a daily audience of about 8 million people is forming around children's content in VK Video, while significantly fewer users watch educational content than bloggers, TV series and cartoons. Kovalchuk noted that it is important for the platform not only to keep the child's attention, but also to help him move towards more useful consumption.

"The most dangerous point that we are monitoring is the transition from 10 to 12-13 years old, depending on the family, when you go from complete control to complete anti—control. At this moment, a new perception of the world is being formed, and our task is to try to put the child on the right path," Kovalchuk said.

He added that VK tries to set up recommendation systems so that after entertaining content, the child is offered educational formats, among other things.

"I am sure that in terms of responsibility to young users, companies in the world will begin to rebuild, stop chasing each other and move to a more creative way. I think that Russia will be one of the first in this process, as our mentality is more creative than any other," Kovalchuk said.

On June 1, the Zen information platform launched the Children Online theme train in the Moscow metro, which will teach the younger generation the basics of cybersecurity. Each carriage is dedicated to different Internet threats and how to protect yourself from them. This way, passengers will be able to learn how to respond to online insults from haters and recognize calls from phone scammers.