“Digital society is a modern, progressive society that is formed as a result of the adoption and integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at home, work, education and recreation, and supported by advanced telecommunications and wireless connectivity systems and solutions.”
Benefits and risks
Open digital society has its benefits and risks. We can see the benefits in our work and personal lives. It´s easier to stay in touch with friend and family, get new friend from around the world, find love or just watch funny cat videos. All the world’s information is at our fingertips all the time. We can also work from home, have meeting with people from different corners of the world and advance our businesses together.
Of course everything good also has its downsides. It is easier to commit crime online without getting caught and potential victims are easy to find. A good example of this is grooming and sexual abuse of children. This is one reason why we parents have to be especially careful about what information we put about ourselves and our children on social media.
“Children and adolescents have the most to gain and are most at risk from digital technologies. They must be at the forefront of national and global digital policies, not only to protect them from online harm but also to allow technology to help them fulfil their full potential.”
https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/growing-digital-world-benefits-and-risks
Children can also harm each other on the Internet, either by accident or on purpose. Cyberbullying has become more common and children are now able to bully their victims even at home and everywhere they carry their smartphone. Children can also share pictures of themselves or others that spread online and can never be removed.
There is also problems with social media and how it influences adults and specially children. Social media often gives a false image of a perfect life and perfect appearance. This can negatively affect susceptible people and cause mental health problems. Internet, social media and online games can also make a child’s life, social relationships and hobbies one-sided and thus affect their physical and mental health.
Data protection regulation
Data protection regulation (GDPR) entered into force in the European Union in 2018. It is a law regulating the processing of personal data, which provides better protection for your personal data and more ways to control the processing of your data than before.
I myself have seen bad processing of personal data in the social and health sector, so I really think that this regulation was necessary. Of course, it increased the work of the employees somewhat, at least temporarily, but it also increased the security and transparency of the services. It is important that a person can, if they wish, know who has read their personal data and for what purpose this data has been used. It is also important that information that is no longer needed in the organization is deleted.