The program was initially launched last year, and was dubbed "Mobile Hunting Season."
It was such a success that regional authorities decided to continue the experiment.
"In two months we got 100 video clips," Alexei Arkhangelsky, a spokesperson for the Pavlovsky regional administration's youth department, as quoted by the Trud daily newspaper. "The most active [kids] got prizes from municipal authorities - a mobile phone and 10,000 rubles [over $420]."
Technically, the vendors who sell liquor or cigarettes to minors cannot be punished because a video clip on a mobile phone does not count as evidence in court. But those who did get caught - and there were many - were reprimanded and received something called "explanatory sessions" with law enforcement authorities.
"Activists have already brought us 36 clips," Arkhangelsky was quoted as saying. "But this year we've got new rules. Now anyone who catches a vendor selling alcohol to a minor will get 100 rubles on his mobile phone. Contest winners can get up to 10,000 rubles in prizes."
It was not reported, meanwhile, what happened to the actual alcohol - did the minor in question turn over to the authorities what was illegally purchased? There is evidence, however, that the "hunt" is getting the intended effect. The regional edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda weekly reported this week that schoolchildren in the area were complaining that they couldn't buy beer or cigarettes anymore - vendors refused, fearing a "mobile bust."
Source: Moscow News 24/07/2008
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