Many good traditional cultural values ​​are being lost, while bad habits and foreign cultures that are not in line with Vietnamese customs and traditions are infiltrating widely, corrupting cultural and spiritual life, especially among young people - those who are considered the pioneers of digital transformation. However, do not blame the "virtual world" and gaps in management, the key is the gap in awareness, weakness in courage, and lack of responsibility of a part of young people.

Foreign films dominate and the reality of "ignoring" the law

Discussing the challenging mission of youth in protecting and spreading Vietnamese values ​​in the "cross-border" era, some experts pondered when putting forward the hypothesis: Let's imagine that in the near future, young Vietnamese people, from the moment they wake up until they go to bed, will go on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok... to watch, admire or comment on everything in the world, read news and watch videos without caring which newspaper wrote it, who posted it; what is real information, what is fake news; who made the TV show they watch, whether it is copyrighted or not... Children find inspiration and lifestyle orientation online through videos of Kha Banh, Tho Nguyen or Mrs. Tan Vlog...; no need to know about domestic and foreign TV channels once there is Facebook, YouTube, TikTok or Netflix... Children will no longer hear lullabies from their mothers or grandmothers, instead, audio clips and songs available online will take over the mission of sacred and noble love.

Illustration photo: VNA

Listening to the above hypothesis, we all probably see that it is not entirely imaginary but has become a part of today's reality. With TV remotes pre-installed with on-off buttons for watching YouTube and Netflix by many young people, turning on the TV almost means accessing these channels to watch. There is no longer a boundary between traditional TV and the treasure trove of video content on the internet. There are young people today who do not know which button to press on the remote to watch channels of Vietnam Television or other mainstream TV stations. There is a risk that concepts such as "essential TV channels" and "mainstream press" will only exist in the memory of the "8X" generation and earlier. This situation could be even worse if cultural products, especially quality films "made in Vietnam", become increasingly scarce.

Looking at the film market in Vietnam, including films shown in theaters and on cross-border platforms, foreign films still dominate. This stems from an obvious fact, which is that the distribution system mostly belongs to foreign distributors. In addition, except for a few blockbuster films whose artistic quality is questionable, many Vietnamese films are not attractive enough to audiences and have difficulty bringing commercial value. As a result, while Vietnamese values ​​gradually fade, audiences, especially young people in the country, are free to enjoy films filled with foreign spirit, culture and ideology. In those films, there are good ones, bad ones, and ones that are not suitable for Vietnamese thinking and lifestyle; invisibly, national values ​​become old-fashioned, backward and gradually fade away. That is not to mention the films that "insert" or unintentionally contain incorrect details, distort history, and even violate national sovereignty.

Film is an art field that not only helps young people enjoy values, but also contributes to adjusting people's thinking and behavior. Therefore, the lack of vision and direction in managing the film industry can lead to much greater and more serious consequences for culture and ideology than economic damage.

Building the film industry is considered the spearhead in the development of the cultural industry in Vietnam today. However, Vietnamese films shown in theaters are dependent on the screening time and distribution channels of foreign enterprises with more than 80% of the market share. Along with that, imported films account for 80% of the annual number of films shown in theaters, a completely opposite ratio compared to some countries in the region. The new cinema law and guiding decree stipulate: The rate of Vietnamese films shown in theaters must reach at least 15%; priority is given to prime time for Vietnamese films... But perhaps, the rate of film screening is no longer as important as the question: How many good Vietnamese films can be shown in theaters and conquer audiences? There are "hundred billion" films that do not have much artistic value, many art films sell few tickets.

Not only movies shown in theaters, the online movie platform system has also witnessed the dominance of foreign companies. Many contents distorting history and violating sovereignty have been discovered on these applications. For example, Netflix has repeatedly broadcast films that seriously violate territorial sovereignty and distort our national history, including notable series such as: "To Our Warm Youth", "A Lifetime, a Lifetime", "Little Women". The film "Foreign Minister" used images of Hoi An but captioned foreign locations. Recently, the documentary "MH370: The Missing Plane" appeared with content that inaccurately reflected Vietnam's contributions to the coordination of search and rescue efforts for the missing Malaysian plane MH370. After studying the opinions of the authorities, on April 11, 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued a strict document requesting Netflix to remove illegal content in the above documentary. However, Netflix continued to violate the law. Last July, the Department of Cinema requested Netflix to remove the film "The Wind Goes" because it again contained content that violated Vietnam's territorial sovereignty.

The 2022 Cinema Law, passed by the National Assembly and effective from January 1, 2023, stipulates both pre-control and post-control in the management of films in cyberspace. Pre-control is to tighten regulations on subjects allowed to disseminate films in cyberspace, as well as the list of films and classification levels before dissemination. The post-control stage applies technology, artificial intelligence, and technical solutions to detect, prevent, and remove infringing films. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism organizes the inspection of film content disseminated in cyberspace, coordinating with the Ministry of Information and Communications to handle violations in accordance with the provisions of law.

Along with the contents of the 2022 Cinema Law, many new regulations taking effect from 2023 have created a more complete legal corridor, helping state management agencies have a basis to strictly manage the dissemination of films on cyberspace. But why are there still toxic online films being released recently? The problem lies in the fact that the units providing online movie viewing services charge fees in Vietnam but are not subject to management and do not have legal status in our country, leading to repeated violations. The form of handling is to remove infringing films, so it seems that foreign film distributors on cyberspace are still "immune" to the law.

The pre-screening work is not strict and thorough, leading to some harmful films "slipping through the net" in cyberspace. The post-screening mechanism contributes to detecting and preventing films that violate legal regulations and are anti-cultural; however, before being requested to be removed, these films have been "enjoyed" by many audiences, especially young people, and who knows, they may have been stored on personal computers or phones?!

"Overwhelmed" with information but lacking in intelligence and cultural courage

Obviously, in the fight against "cultural invasion", the role and responsibility of all levels and functional sectors are very important in managing and preventing the smuggling of harmful cultural products as well as preserving and promoting so that national cultural identity is always a source of pride that every young person cherishes and protects. In a comprehensive view, in the risk and consequences of such "invasion", it is impossible to completely blame cyberspace or the authorities for "letting through the net" harmful cultural products. From the subjective perspective of the subject, if each young person has the right awareness, sense of responsibility, national pride and self-esteem, and a steadfast spirit, knows how to separate the bad from the good, and selectively accepts the cultural quintessence of the world, then certainly any "invasion" cannot cross the boundaries of each person's cultural and ideological borders.

A number of young people who follow a foreign, deviant lifestyle have unintentionally or intentionally turned themselves into victims of “cultural invasion” when they only know how to satisfy their personal needs without caring about good or bad, right or wrong, or the consequences for the nation. There are movies shown online that distort historical facts, propagate violations of national sovereignty, but as long as their idols play the main role, some young people still praise and admire them. There are even young people who are indifferent to the country’s political, cultural, and social events, but are willing to spend a lot of money and endure the sun and rain to participate in programs where their international “idols” appear.

Due to insufficient awareness, some young people are confused and have difficulty orienting between positive and negative information on the Internet, not to mention being able to properly control their emotions and personal behavior in the face of events. They are the ones who are participating in the process of distributing cultural and entertainment products through the sharing feature, so without a good cultural background, it is very easy to spread anti-cultural products to the community.

Professor, Dr. Hoang Chi Bao, senior expert, former member of the Central Theoretical Council, once raised the issue and made a strong warning comment that the young generation is currently facing an existing paradox: There is a risk of "drowning" in the ocean of information-cyberspace, yet they are still constantly "hungry" for intelligence. That means the "overabundance" of fake information is crowding and oppressing people, hindering the search for true truth, true phenomena, reflecting true nature while the illusions that deceive and distort nature are still flooding cyberspace. It causes a strong feeling and torments our conscience and consciousness. That is the "hunger" of intelligence in the modern era with the dominance of information technology, where there is a lot of confusion between right-wrong, true-false, good-bad information flows. Therefore, to protect human nature and humanistic qualities of society, in development, it is necessary to provide people, especially young people who are growing up, with information orientation, essentially orientation of life values ​​and souls so that they are steadfast and courageous in learning information, receiving true and authentic information, knowing how to reject and criticize bad and toxic information streams to protect themselves and protect the community.

The strength that gives us that ability is culture. That internal and endogenous strength is only born from educated people, that is, people who are kind, honest, upright, and responsible for themselves, for others, for society, who know how to respect and protect the truth and morality of life. Cultural values, human values ​​are the embodiment of the strength to protect and self-protect true development, strong enough to resist and overcome counter-development - anti-cultural, inhuman toxins. The cultural mettle of young people is not only knowing how to live for themselves but also living for many people, for everyone, not being indifferent to the losses of the community and the nation; always aiming for beauty, clearly recognizing good and evil, right and wrong, good and bad; not only looking at society and others but also looking at themselves. Cultural integration requires young people to have cultural mettle when approaching and accepting new and different things; know how to respect diversity and differences but also know how to selectively absorb and eliminate inappropriate and even toxic things.

In a world filled with information, mixed with truth and falsehood, in addition, smart algorithms can manipulate and lead the crowd in the direction that technology wants, young people need to be equipped with soft skills, sober "filters" to avoid following the crowd and being led by the crowd syndrome. Family, school, organizations, and social communities play an important role in education and orientation, and each young person must know how to take self-study and self-training as the core to fully equip themselves with knowledge and courage in the face of "cultural invasion".

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Reporter Group

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