How to Avoid Deadly Selfies, a guide by the Russian government

 By 
Brian Ries
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The Russian government has published a guide that warns its citizens about the dangers of taking risky selfies.

"Your health and your life are worth more than a million likes on social networks," Russia's Interior Ministry states in the "Safe Selfie" document published on its website, which it adds was created in the wake of an "abundance of recent cases of trauma and even death while trying to make an original selfie."

The guide follows a sequence of deadly selfies in the country. A teenager died in Saint Petersburg when she fell on railway tracks while attempting a selfie last April; a Moscow woman accidentally shot herself in the head while attempting a selfie in May; another died when she fell from a bridge while attempting a selfie on Saturday night.

"Each of these cases could have been prevented," the government document states, alongside a series of graphics showing stick figures attempting to take selfies while holding guns, posing near lions and standing near train tracks, on roofs and atop electrical towers. Some reference the aforementioned real-life examples.

"When a person is trying to take a picture of themselves, they become distracted, lose their balance, they don't look around and don't feel in danger," it continues. "When taking a selfie, be sure that you are in a safe place and your life is not in danger!"

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Those are all pro tips we can all get behind.

Christopher Miller contributed to this story.

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