The aim of this paper is to address the issue of implementation of international legal instruments regarding cybercrime into the Polish criminal law. Effective protection against cybercrime requires, among other things, the establishment of an appropriate legal framework. Criminal prohibitions of a deterrent effect, which are a part of this framework, seem of particular importance. In Europe such a set of rules is provided for in the instruments of the Council of Europe as well as in the European Union instruments. As a member of both these international organisations, Poland is obliged to implement their standards. The author’s aim is to analyse whether and, if so, to what extent the current Polish criminal legislation is in line with European requirements. The process of implementation of these norms has expanded in the span of over 10 years and was initiated even before Poland accessed the European Union. Polish criminal law, however, is not yet fully compliant with international requirements on cybercrime. This paper is an attempt to identify some areas of the criminal law which are still to be amended as well as to submit some solutions de lege ferenda.

In the times of global ICT networks, activities pursued online are not limited by space and time, and the content shared in cyberspace may reach a potentially unlimited audience. Even if access to this content requires some additional conditions to be fulfilled, it is usually not as problematic as to make this access more restricted. The ease of sharing and the illusory sense of complete anonymity online contributes to sharing multimedia materials also featuring content prohibited by law. A highly disturbing and, unfortunately, increasingly common phenomenon is the online sharing of images of people engaged in a sexual intercourse - with these images being shared without their knowledge and consent. Polish criminal law is aware of the significance of the problem, penalising behaviour involving recording and publishing images of nude persons engaged in sexual activity. It seems, however, that the category of punishable acts is too narrow, which shall be subject to criticism. The objective of the discussion presented herein is to make an attempt to analyse the scope of criminalisation regulated under Article 191a of the Criminal Code (hereinafter: the CC) and formulate a set of de lege ferenda demands.