“They beat me with an ax and current”: the authorities decided to deal with hellish quests that traumatize people

Few people know, but increasingly common quests sometimes take the form of horror films. And it’s not a fact that a child after a “birthday” arranged for him by caring parents in this form will return safe and sound. It became known about many cases of injury to children and adults during such “fun”. How the authorities are going to deal with the quest lawlessness, MK found out.

It is noteworthy that the quest industry in our country has existed for ten years, but so far, as such, this area in our economy does not seem to exist, there are no approved rules and standards. Therefore, the organizers of this type of leisure come up with tasks and plots for everyone, and often do not bear any responsibility for the deplorable consequences.

The statistics are very alarming: in 2018-2020, more than a thousand violations of the law were recorded in quest games.

“Most of the incidents with injuries were associated with the activities of animators-actors who made bodily contact with the participants in the quests,” said Yana Lantratova, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education. – It was the unprofessional, and sometimes openly criminal actions of the animators that led to disastrous consequences, self-mutilation and psychological trauma.

In St. Petersburg, for example, there was an emergency: during the “game” the actors used force – they strangled and shocked the woman, and they did not respond to her requests to stop. As a result, she was diagnosed with a chest injury and bruises. There was a case in Moscow when an animator began to attack schoolchildren. According to the victims, the man brandished a baseball bat, tried to choke and even set fire to children. After a terrible quest, the students ended up in the hospital. Two were diagnosed with bruises and abrasions all over their bodies.

Lantratova is convinced that it is high time to raise the question of who in our country acts as animators. Basically, these are people without experience and proper training, meanwhile, educational programs need to be developed for animators so that they learn how to work with people safely. In addition, given their close contact with children, it is necessary to demand from the actors a medical book and a medical examination. “It is especially important to identify people with mental disorders, a tendency to sadism,” the deputy believes.

Also, according to her, certain types of props should be banned, “after all, a significant part of the injuries were obtained precisely as a result of the use of axes, knives” – even blunt objects turn out to be traumatic. So, at the end of February in Moscow, a woman in the process of completing the quest “Sin City” received a serious hand injury from a blow with a blunt ax and almost lost four fingers. But a man from Rostov-on-Don was less fortunate: participation in one of the quests turned out to be the loss of a finger for him!

In addition to “blunted axes”, the use of open fire in such games can also become deadly. “In Moscow, for example, at one of the stages of the quest, teenagers had to light a gas lamp. But they got a defective gas cylinder. The guys were in a cage and could not get out of there. They tried to extinguish them through the bars. Four teenagers and two organizers of the quest received burns of varying severity. The teenagers received burns on their shoulders, forearms, hands and torso,” the parliamentarian said.

And it was against the backdrop of an increased number of such emergencies that the authorities set out to develop rules – what can and cannot be done in quest games. There is no talk of strict legislative regulation yet. The head of Rosstandart, Anton Shalaev, believes that there should be “soft regulation” through GOSTs, national standards, which will clearly spell out the organization of the entire process, security and requirements for animators. Following the example of GOSTs, which exist for trampoline centers, lifts at ski resorts, etc.

“Quest-GOST” should be developed and approved before the end of this year.

Ekaterina Stenyakina, a member of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, said that the establishment of certain rules by the state in this area found “absolute” support from business, since each such negative incident leads to a decrease in demand for these services.

Well, while there are no such standards, the deputies advised how to choose a normal company in order to minimize the risk of negative consequences for the child. First of all, you should not choose quests that take place on abandoned industrial sites and warehouses, where there are no fire safety systems and evacuation schemes. There is poor lighting, etc., and in the event of, for example, a short circuit, it is not clear where to run. It is necessary to read the script, and if open fire or piercing objects are used according to the plot, then it is also worth refusing to participate in such an action. If quest rooms are opened in shopping centers, on public sites, then it is safer there, since, in theory, supervisory authorities come there with checks. And it is better to choose intellectual quests in general. We need to make more such quests that are focused on “popularization of national culture and history”, use plots of classical Russian literature or the history of the Russian state in them.