MTS Upgrades Child Online Safety Service, Triples Detection Effectiveness for Harmful Websites
MTS has upgraded its Bezopasny Internet (Safe Internet) service for protecting children online. The introduction of new AI models operating in real time has tripled the effectiveness of filtering dangerous websites and adult content, raising accuracy to 95%.
In the first quarter of 2026 alone, the service blocked more than 10 million attempts to access malicious online resources. The system now analyzes not only website addresses but also page content. It operates at the network level without requiring a separate application and relies on a continuously updated database covering more than two million websites. The service is included in the MTS Junior plan and is available to subscribers free of charge.
Social Impact
This is more than a routine feature update. It reflects a telecommunications operator expanding beyond traditional connectivity services and developing AI-powered digital safety tools with a social mission. Protecting children from harmful content and phishing threats has become the primary focus. Parents do not need to install or configure additional software, while children gain safer internet access when following links or consuming entertainment content.
MTS’s initiative aligns with broader efforts to create a safer digital environment for minors and improve digital literacy among families. The direct impact of the service is naturally limited to Russia because it operates within a national ecosystem. However, the underlying approach – network-level filtering powered by AI and tailored to Russian-language online content – may be relevant to countries developing their own child online safety systems.
The Growth of a New Product Category
The service can naturally expand across telecommunications ecosystems, from mobile connectivity to home internet, family plans, child-focused subscriptions, and connected devices. MTS is already moving in that direction. In late May 2026, the operator introduced Parental Control and Ad Blocking network services for home internet users. Those offerings also rely on AI algorithms and are embedded directly into network infrastructure.
Telecom operators are gaining the ability to build a new category of products at the intersection of connectivity, cybersecurity, and family-oriented digital services, while also strengthening customer retention. The IT sector, meanwhile, benefits from growing demand for content analysis technologies, anti-phishing tools, malicious advertising detection systems, and Russian-language NLP models. The key challenge remains delivering effective protection without excessively blocking socially important online resources.
The export potential of such services is limited, but it exists. AI-powered filtering technology could eventually reach friendly international markets after being adapted to local languages, regulations, and cultural norms.
Family Plans and Stronger Safeguards
An industry-wide approach to protecting children online began taking shape in Russia as early as 2021 with the creation of the Alyans po zashchite detey v tsifrovoy srede (Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment), which brought together major telecom and technology companies under voluntary commitments to protect minors from harmful information. That institutional foundation helped pave the way for services such as MTS’s child online safety offerings.
During 2024 and 2025, child digital safety evolved along several tracks. Rostelecom focused on educational initiatives for schoolchildren, including courses on cybersecurity and digital etiquette. Yandex expanded family-oriented and child-focused services, automatically enabling enhanced content filtering for children's accounts. Telecom operators promoted family subscriptions that included fraud protection features, while regulators increased oversight of digital platforms and online cinemas. As a result, penalties for distributing content deemed harmful to children increased.
MTS launched the initial version of Bezopasny Internet (Safe Internet) in January 2026. Parents could activate the AI-powered service through the Moy MTS (My MTS) application and filter content for children. By summer, the company had significantly improved filtering accuracy and effectiveness. In May, it expanded the product family with additional solutions, extending protection beyond mobile networks to home Wi-Fi and wired internet connections.
A Focus on Precision
MTS is shifting child online safety from an optional add-on feature to an integrated operator service. Protection can now function not as a separate product but as a built-in component of the network and family subscription plan.
The initiative serves as a notable example of applied AI within a large-scale, socially significant service, where algorithms classify and filter content in real time. For telecom operators, it creates a new area of competition. The quality of embedded security services is becoming increasingly important alongside traditional factors such as price and network speed.
At the same time, services like these address only part of the challenge of children's exposure to harmful content and cannot replace digital literacy and parental guidance. Over the coming years, demand is expected to grow for intelligent AI filters embedded in subscription plans, routers, and child accounts, with a strong emphasis on accuracy and minimizing false positives.
