Internet of the 21st century – a trap of threats for children, youth and the elderly in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Information and communication technologies at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries underwent an evolution, the use of which in the conditions of extreme exploration, as the basic medium of interpersonal communication, could be observed after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Forced isolation, as part of the fight against the pandemic, moved socio-economic life into cyberspace. Using the Internet in many aspects has become a necessity, and the functions of cyberspace have acquired a new dimension and importance in interpersonal relations. The Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland has become a key instrument for specialized entities dealing with cybersecurity in identifying and combating online threats. Regular use of the Internet in different age groups, which has changed over the years, reached its highest level in 2020. Minors who are so eager to use communication and information technologies, but also with a very large progress in exploring the Internet, seniors 65+ have become the groups most exposed to the traps and threats of the Internet. Through the prism of changes in the use of the Internet during the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting from the legislative activity of the Polish government, the study presents a spectrum of selected threats to which both young people and seniors were exposed to a varying degree. Percentage analysis of the number of people regularly using the Internet in individual age groups in the years 2003‒2020 in comparison with treats in cyberspace, allowed to draw conclusions about the scale and trends of threats in cyberspace resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.