Need to create "digital vaccine" for children in the online environment

Protecting children online is not a new issue, but it is clear that there are still many loopholes.

National Assembly member Nguyen Thi Viet Nga said that it is necessary to equip children with skills and knowledge in the online environment. (Photo: NVCC)

Recently, the Ministry of Information and Communications announced a series of violations by TikTok in Vietnam, many of which contained content harmful to children, which surprised the public. From there, we see even more the importance of protecting children from harmful content on social networks.

Vietnam is a country that signed the international convention on the rights of the child very early, but there are still many obstacles in implementing the convention. To be more precise, there are some contents that we have not implemented well, and the effectiveness is not high. There are aspects of children's rights that have not received due attention. Comprehensive protection of children in life is a demand, a legitimate request for children to have the best environment and conditions for development.

Children today - tomorrow's world, almost everyone knows this slogan by heart. But how we nurture and care for "tomorrow's world" is still a matter of much debate. Protecting children online is not a new issue, but it is clear that there are still too many loopholes.

With the rapid and strong development of the Internet and technological devices, legal regulations related to the protection of children in the online environment in our country are lacking and not synchronized. The technology system for collecting and monitoring data is having to "run after" harmful information. In addition, specific regulations on the responsibilities and powers of sectors and levels in child protection work are lacking and not strong enough to implement...

Statistics from the Ministry of Information and Communications show that as of September 2022, the number of Internet users in Vietnam is about 70 million, an increase of 0.8% in the period 2020 - 2021 (accounting for more than 70% of the population); the number of social network users in Vietnam is nearly 76 million, an increase of nearly 10 million people within 1 year (equivalent to 73.7% of the population).

With this figure, Vietnam is the country with the 12th highest number of Internet users in the world and ranks 6th out of 35 countries/territories in Asia. Vietnamese users spend an average of nearly 7 hours per day participating in Internet-related activities and the percentage of Internet users in Vietnam using the Internet daily is up to 94%.

In recent years, social media has become a part of the daily lives of most Vietnamese people. At the same time, Vietnam has seen an increase in smartphone and internet usage. With a young, digitally savvy and highly connected population, Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest number of social media users in the world.

In the era of the 4.0 Revolution, each individual must constantly strive to update the latest achievements of science and technology. But it seems that we are only interested in objective factors, that is, knowledge and methods to apply information technology (IT) without paying due attention to subjective factors. That is the culture of behavior in cyberspace, the skills to protect yourself and your loved ones (including children) in the "virtual world" that is very real.

ĐBQH Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga: Còn nhiều lỗ hổng trong việc bảo vệ trẻ trên không gian mạng

It is necessary to create a "digital vaccine" for children in the online environment. (Source: VNA)

Therefore, social networks are flooded with toxic, sensitive, and harmful information for children without any barriers. Meanwhile, children have easy access to social networks because they own technological devices (computers, smartphones, iPads, etc.) to serve both their learning and entertainment needs.

In fact, children are almost unprotected in cyberspace, they can access any information and content. And a lot of it is bad and toxic to children, which is very worrying. Therefore, we cannot hesitate any longer in taking action to protect children in cyberspace.

In my opinion, this is extremely important because social networks have great appeal not only to children but also to adults. In the digital age, we cannot prohibit children from accessing social networks but must have strong and effective management measures to protect children. Otherwise, harmful content on social networks will have a very negative impact on the formation of children's personalities. From there, many consequences will arise.

Therefore, it is necessary to have measures and tools to ensure the safety of children's private information. When talking about protection tools, we are talking about legal regulations. In my opinion, it is necessary to review all regulations related to the protection of children in cyberspace to see if they are complete and strict enough to continue to improve. At the same time, it is necessary to raise awareness of each individual about this issue.

Many times, parents themselves do not fully understand the harmful effects of bad and toxic information on social networks on their children. Many parents cannot even distinguish correctly between bad information and information that children are allowed to access. Children's private secrets are often innocently "published to the world" on social networks by their own parents and relatives. I want to emphasize that each individual must make a real effort to adapt to the digital age, starting with subjective factors.

It is worth mentioning that some people think that to revive culture, we must first revive online culture. However, I do not think so. Culture is a very broad concept and cultural elements are present in all activities, fields, and elements of social life. It cannot be divided into two parts: to start reviving culture, we must do this, then move on to that field. How can we revive online culture if in our daily social life, in real life, we do not revive culture, and do not pay due attention to cultivating cultural values?

I think that the purification of cyberspace is necessary in the current period. However, our information technology human resources are still too scarce, and high-quality human resources in this field are even rarer. According to the Government's report, the current ratio of information technology human resources to the total labor force in Vietnam is only estimated at 1%, much lower than that of countries with strong information technology (IT). This is also a weakness that makes state management of IT still have many shortcomings.

Accordingly, synchronous solutions are needed. Urgently and actively review the institutions to amend and supplement them to suit the reality. Strengthen and focus on education and training, especially training high-quality IT human resources. At the same time, pay due attention to communication work so that each individual has more knowledge about social networks, how to behave and protect themselves and their loved ones in cyberspace, especially children.

In addition, to protect children from the risks of social media, equipping them with digital knowledge and skills according to their age is extremely important. This is considered a "digital vaccine" so that children can interact safely and know how to protect themselves in cyberspace.

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