We are increasingly witnessing an increase in cyber crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially among young people. Can and should Bosnia and Herzegovina introduce restrictions on young people and their use of the Internet, following the example of some other countries?
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, websites, hiding IP address, everyday life of young people and children. More and more often we witness tragedies and more and more information about careless use of these tools. The virtual world is increasingly changing the real one.
Exposed to content that is marketed, many young people become more prone to violent behavior, according to experts.
“Public space is poisoned by violence. There is so much violence published in public space, it is presented as socially desirable behavior, through music, through videos, through series, fast guys, weapons, fast vehicles. Everything goes a bit fast and is accepted as socially desirable behavior , and it is not and cannot be,” emphasizes sociologist Vladimir Vasić.
Often unaware of the consequences, but also of the legal framework, many of them engage in dangerous actions, not realizing that the rules that apply in the real world also apply in the digital one.
“They are not aware of the legal consequences in any way. I just don’t understand where their courage comes from. It’s not just 5-6 children, it’s certainly more than 20 high school and elementary school students who were processed by the MUP Sarajevo. I don’t know how they don’t understand, today or tomorrow someone will come and get them and they will not end up in a Norwegian prison where the conditions are great, but they will end up in detention which is not very conditional in the way they see in the movies and with their 25 kg weight, I don’t know how they will manage in that conditions. I’m not threatening, I’m not scaring, but this has exceeded all limits,” says Saša Petrović from the Department of Cyber Security.
Meanwhile, the same Norway is raising the social media age to 15. Australia announces similar ban, France tests. Bosnia and Herzegovina does not seem to seriously consider the regulation of the Internet and social networks yet.
“It can be banned, legally, and now who will control it, how? It sounds incredible to me. The idea has been around for a long time, segmentation of the Internet, it is talked about, these are ideas but it has not been introduced yet, all of us in the world are far from that,” says Petrović.
And, until that happens, police structures believe that parents are the biggest regulators of their children’s behavior on the Internet, BHRT writes.
