I'm no prude, but when it comes to the sex and violence to which children are exposed in everyday life here, I get mad.
Take the time I trotted into a Sam supermarket to buy some groceries. While we were waiting at the checkout counter, my two girls, ages 9 and 6, were studying an array of match boxes picturing naked men and women having sex in a Kama-Sutra variety of positions. When I called the shop manager and suggested that he at least remove them from a child's eye-level, he laughed in my face.
"To Russians that's art!" he exclaimed. "It's just your strange Western mind that turns it into pornography. It's no different from paying to see Botticcelian women in an art gallery, and the sooner kids get used to seeing this sort of thing the better."
Apart from boycotting such stores, there isn't much you can do to protect your child from erotic "art" in Moscow. Pornographic photos on bottles of beer or even kids' chewing gum might be on sale in any palatka, or stall. Take them on the metro, and they see the same magazines along with similar calendars and posters.
And if you ride the bus, you're exposed to erotic stickers from chewing gum packs glued on the seats and windows. Switch on Russian television in the daytime, and there's a fair chance of coming across a bedroom scene or murder.
Some Russian moms are surprisingly relaxed when it comes to this sort of thing, perhaps because it is all relatively new and unregulated and therefore presumed to be all right. I picked 9-year-old Sasha up from her friend's house and found them watching a violent film. "It's about killing!" explained her friend, not taking his eyes of the screen. "Masses of killings." His mother shrugged: "It keeps them busy, doesn't it?"
I do like Sasha to go round to friends' houses, but if I ask the mother not to let them watch television, they think I'm being neurotic.
School kids can freely buy porn videos or magazines, but what is really worrying is that there seems to be a lack of moral awareness about the dangers of exposing children to sex and violence. One of Sasha's school teachers told the class that they could watch horror films because it was useful -- it would toughen them up.
I was the only parent who was up-in-arms at the statement. Many Russian mothers are philosophical about this sort of thing. "We can't stop our children from seeing," explained one mom, "so I guess the only thing left to do is to try and explain it to them."
Maybe she's got a point. But the general attitude is that if it's officially allowed, it must be all right.
What could be more official than the State Tax Service, and who can forget their latest television advertisement? A man is in bed with a disgruntled woman. He clutches his head in frustration while a caption reads: "Lost your drive? Pay your taxes and sleep peacefully!"
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.