Youth Information Security Culture in the Context Of Trash Content (Pathological Content) Posted in Cyberspace

The virtual world has long become as significant as the real world. It has also become equally dangerous. Representatives from various environments are paying more attention to harmful content available online, as there has been a drastic increase in their numbers recently. The so-called “trash content”, which includes both content that does not violate the law (harmful content) and content that does (illegal content), refers to “content presented online in the form of internet streams, stream fragments, films, photos, and other forms of communication in which the sender or a group of senders exhibit behaviors that contradict social norms, carrying a demoralizing message, in-cluding behaviors such as physical, psychological, sexual violence, alcohol abuse, humiliation, drug use, and others” (Wójcik et al., 2019). This is a very complex and dynamic phenomenon that has been studied to a limited extent both theoretically and empirically, especially in the context of trash streaming (pathological streaming) (e.g., Włodarczyk, 2013; Livingstone et al., 2013; EU Kis Online, 2018; Wójcik et al., 2019). In recent years, several interesting studies on this topic have emerged, mostly of a theoretical nature.

Pioneering research aimed at determining the impact of this kind of content on young people's functioning in various areas (emotions, thinking, and behavior) was conducted by the author of the monograph as part of the Miniatura 3 competition, funded by the National Science Center. The research was conducted from December 2020 to May 2021 among 500 students, 500 parents, and 18 teacher-counselors from five primary schools in the Siedlce municipality and one primary school in the Mińsk Mazowiecki municipality.

The research primarily served the cognitive objectives of better understanding the essence of trash content (pathological content), its dynamics, scale, causes, effects, and possibilities of counteracting this threat to the development of appropriate behaviors among young people focused on wise and safe use of online resources. Over half of the surveyed students declared contact with trash content (pathological content) online (visual, auditory, or both forms of contact). The most frequent ones were fake news, cyberbullying, and trash streaming (pathostreaming). The most common reasons why young people browse trash content (pathological content) included curiosity, seeking entertainment, boredom, and an attempt to free time. However, the research shows that the actions taken to ensure the safety of young people online were insufficient – slightly more than half of the students stated that no adult had talked to them about this topic. The research also indicates that the negative way of thinking about Internet safety (as the absence of threats, disregarding development categories), the way of perceiving it, and reacting to its absence (i.e., the culture of individuals' information security) have an impact on the frequency of contact with trash content (pathological content) online and the undertaking of other dangerous and irresponsible actions online.

The information collected during the research expanded the existing knowledge on youth's contact with trash content (pathological content) posted online within the discipline of security science. It also shed light on whether and how the presence in the virtual world and contact with trash content (pathological content) influence the functioning of young people in the real world and their fulfillment of social roles. Moreover, the research deepened the previously analyzed issues, which were often examined separately in publications on trash content (pathological content) and in separate publications on information security culture, revealing various types of connections and interactions between them. This situation testifies to the continuous development of security sciences, which is particularly desirable for a discipline with just over 10 years of history.