MOSCOW, February 14 (RAPSI) - State Duma members Alexei Zhuravlyov (United Russia) and Sergei Zhigaryov (Liberal Democratic Party) have submitted a draft bill that bans children from participating in beauty pageants. The bill specifies fines of up to one million rubles, RIA Novosti was told Friday.

The bill prohibits the participation of children in events that include any evaluation or display of one’s appearance if it can have an adverse effect on a child’s health, their physical, mental and moral development or result in sexual abuse.

The proposed fines for allowing children to take part in beauty pageants would be between 4,000 and 5,000 rubles for individuals, 40,000 to 50,000 rubles for public officials and between 800,000 rubles to 1 million rubles for corporations. A violation by the latter could lead to the suspension of a business license for up to 90 days.

If the offense is committed by a foreigner or a stateless person and if there are no criminal implications, the offender would be liable for 4,000 to 5,000 rubles and will be deported, or detained for up to 15 days and then deported.

In the explanatory note, the authors of the bill explain that a similar ban has already been imposed by the legislative council in the Krasnodar Territory and introduced in France last September.

The deputies also noted that, according to psychologists and teachers, participation in beauty pageants can cause damage to the mental and sometimes physical health of children and can form a distorted understanding of beauty.