Children in Mari El Can Send Emergency Alerts Through the MAX Messenger
The new chatbot allows children not only to alert their parents when they are in danger but also to share their location with an accuracy of 10-15 meters. If the project proves effective, it could be expanded to serve other groups, including older adults, mushroom foragers, and recreational anglers.
On June 1, 2026, the Republic of Mari El launched the Araltysh (Protective Charm) chatbot, a digital service built into the MAX messenger that allows children to quickly notify their parents about a problem and share their location. The project was introduced on International Children's Day at the initiative of the republic's Youth Parliament. Its name translates from the Mari language as "protective charm."
In practice, the service functions as an emergency button for children. A child selects either "Danger" or "I'm Lost," sends their location, and parents receive an alert and can immediately confirm that help is on the way. The service supports multiple children and multiple adults within the same network. Location data can be opened through Google Maps, Yandex Maps, Yandex Navigator, or 2GIS, and the stated positioning accuracy is 10-15 meters.
The project is another example of a digital service designed to improve child safety. The national messenger is increasingly evolving into a digital platform that serves not only communication needs but also broader social purposes. During an emergency, a request for help can be transmitted instantly without lengthy explanations.
A National Project for Public Safety
Over time, the same model could be extended to other user groups, including older adults, mushroom foragers, recreational anglers, teachers, and supervisors of children's groups. In that scenario, Araltysh could become part of a broader social infrastructure spanning schools, summer camps, extracurricular education centers, children's events, field trips, and sports programs. If the project is eventually integrated with emergency-response and social-service organizations, alerts could be delivered not only to parents but also to trained personnel capable of providing assistance.
Services of this kind align closely with the national Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State initiative. One of the program's core objectives is the digitization of social services and public-sector functions. If digital tools can reliably support child safety, Russian-developed family-locator and emergency-alert technologies could eventually find opportunities in international markets as well.
People Vote With Downloads
In 2022, the highest-grossing application in Russia's Health and Fitness category was Gde moi deti (Where Are My Children). The service provided location tracking, monitored sounds around the device, and restricted access to undesirable online services. Smartwatch versions also included an emergency-alert button. Consumer adoption demonstrated how strongly families valued these capabilities, and the market for family-locator services subsequently expanded across Russia.
In 2025, the Ekran BezOpasnosti (Safety Screen) Telegram bot was launched as a free digital assistant that helps parents protect children from online threats. That same year, the national MAX messenger was introduced and became a platform for social-service applications alongside communication tools. Regional chatbots, including Araltysh, are now being developed on that platform.
Protection Without Barriers
Araltysh belongs to a category of projects that are modest in scale but straightforward in purpose. It is designed for a specific situation and aims to respond quickly and clearly without requiring complex registration procedures or specialized skills. As a result, its future will depend largely on parents' trust in MAX, as well as the quality of its geolocation capabilities and personal-data protections.
The Mari El pilot is likely to expand into schools, camps, extracurricular education organizations, and other institutions. If the initiative proves successful, similar chatbots could emerge in other regions as part of a broader ecosystem of regional services operating within the MAX messenger.
