Moscow ( CNN ) -- Keen , bright-eyed and earnest , the little boy answers the Russian investigator 's questions enthusiastically , as if describing a cartoon , not sexual abuse . `` He took off my underwear and photographed me , '' says the victim , whom Russian authorities are not allowing to be identified . The boy goes on to describe sexual abuse at the hands of his own father . Without this testimony , child advocates say , it would be impossible to convict the man , whose trial begins later this year . In Russia , possessing child pornography is not a crime and laws that govern child exploitation are weak . Government authorities say the majority of sexual crimes against children are never reported or investigated . Those are among the reasons that even the Russian government admits the country is a world leader in the production of child pornography . Russian lawmaker Elena Mizulina has been painstakingly shepherding a bill through the country 's parliament that would finally protect children . `` For the first time people will be held criminally responsible for storing child pornography even if they do n't distribute it . To this day , you ca n't punish anyone for that '' in Russia , Mizulina said . The bill has now passed its second of three readings in Russia 's State Duma , the lower house of the legislature . The law ca n't come soon enough for victims . According to Russia 's Investigative Committee , more than 800 cases of sexual abuse were reported in the first three months of this year , an increase of 13 % . `` Analysis of such crimes indicates that sexual assaults against the integrity of minors and their rights and freedoms is mostly stemming from the lack of control by parents , guardians , as well as officials of educational institutions and local government officials , '' said Vladimir Markin , a spokesman for the Investigative Committee . Yet even with stronger laws , it is the testimony of young children that will ultimately bring punishment to those who prey on children . Yevgeny Tsymbal , director of a Children 's Psychology Center in Moscow , told CNN that weak laws and lack of evidence usually help the abusers avoid detection and punishment . `` These crimes usually go on for a long time , '' he said , adding that because physical signs of abuse are often not apparent , `` these crimes are very rarely discovered . '' The Internet is also a haven for child pornographers in Russia . This week , the Kremlin 's child advocate , Pavel Astakhov , spoke in favor of a more stringent policy to force Internet providers to take responsibility for child pornography sites hosted on their servers and social networks . `` A person who wants to find this content on the Internet , this person can do it pretty easily , '' said Mark Tverdynin , director of Saferunet.ru , an initiative that is trying to scrub the Russian Internet clean of child pornography . The charity says it shut down as many as 7,000 such sites this past fall and winter . CNN 's Maxim Tkachenko has contributed to this report .
Possessing child pornography is not a crime in Russia , and child exploitation laws are weak . The country is a world leader in the production of child pornography . Comment: