The dark side of social networks

In the age of technology 4.0, the use of social networks has become popular with the young generation and has brought them many benefits in learning, developing, and integrating with the world.

However, the online environment also causes children to face many common pitfalls and risks such as: Access to harmful content (violence, pornography...) that distorts their thinking, lifestyle, evolution; Having private or personal information released negatively affects children's lives; Being bullied online in many different forms; Excessive use and addiction to the Internet; Being enticed, seduced, harassed, defrauded, threatened, blackmailed, forced to participate in illegal activities, even prostitution, sexually abused...

According to statistics from specialized agencies, every year in Vietnam there are about 2,000 cases of child abuse, of which, the number of abuse cases on the internet accounts for a large proportion.

According to data from the Department of Children under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, in 2022, the National Children's Protection Switchboard (111) recorded nearly 370,000 calls, with nearly 28,000 calls recorded and over 1,500 calls receiving interventions. Of these, there were 419 calls reporting child abuse activities online.

In addition, they are at risk of verbal violence or, in other words, online bullying. In real life, children are often subjected to physical violence, while online bullying will severely affect the victim's mental health through the acts of posting rumors, threats, reviews, criticism or criticism. humiliate, call for boycott... This causes children to have many negative reactions and emotions, fear, disappointment, anger, depression, avoidance, feeling low self-esteem, and even increased self-esteem. intended to commit suicide.

UNICEF's Prevention of Harmful Behavior in Vietnam Report (2022), the situation of sexual exploitation and abuse of Vietnamese children aged 12 - 17 years old online is happening unpredictably. Of which: 1% of children received requests to send photos/videos of their private parts when they did not want to; 0.2% offered money or gifts in exchange for intimate photos; 0.3% threatened or intimidated children to engage in sexual activity; 1% of children have sensitive photos shared without permission; 2% of children aged 15 - 17 have received money or gifts in exchange for sensitive photos and videos...

UNICEF also sounded a warning about issues related to the impact of artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, on children, and the protection of children in cyberspace.

In particular, children in the developing stage of puberty are the most easily influenced and psychologically vulnerable age group. Children always want to prove themselves, prove that they are grown up to their parents, teachers, and friends, so it is easy to have distorted thoughts, leading to wrong actions when accessing bad information on the Internet. social networks, Internet.

Protecting and supporting children to interact healthily and creatively in the online environment will both protect the secrets of private life, prevent acts of taking advantage of the online environment to abuse children, and focus on equipping children. "digital immune system" for children.

Create a shield for children in the virtual world

In recent years, the work of protecting children in cyberspace has received attention from the Party and State, mobilizing the entire political system to participate.

The legal system is relatively fully promulgated such as: Law on Children, Law on Cyber Security, Law on Cyber Information Security, Law on Access to Information; Decree No. 56/2017/ND-CP; Decree No. 27/2018/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP on management, provision, and use of Internet services and online information; Decree No. 130/2021/ND-CP regulates sanctions for administrative violations in the fields of social protection, assistance and children; Decision No. 23/QD-TTg dated January 7, 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the National Action Program for Children for the period 2021 - 2030; Decision No. 830/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the Program to protect and support children in healthy and creative interactions in the online environment for the period 2021 - 2025.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has developed plans to implement Decision 830 of the Prime Minister on supporting children to interact healthily in the online environment.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has built a Network for rescuing and protecting children in the online environment (VN-COP Network) at https://vn-cop.vn, which is an interdisciplinary coordination organization to help the Ministry Minister of Information and Communications enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and the results of implementing tasks of preventing and combating child abuse in the online environment, contributing to raising social awareness and creating a Safe and healthy online environment for children.

To further equip the legal corridor to protect children, the Government assigned the Ministry of Information and Communications to develop a Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP on management and provision of children. providing and using Internet services and online information, which introduces the concept of child abuse and harmful information for children in the online environment. At the same time, emphasizing the protection of children and teenagers in the online environment is one of the important management measures to promote development and effective Internet management.

Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Public Security have coordinated, detected and handled many cases related to spreading bad and toxic information on social networks such as Facebook, Youtube... creating a healthy environment for children. It is recommended that businesses providing digital services and content on the network environment enforce legal regulations on ensuring information safety and security, protecting personal information, and protecting children.

At the same time, increasing the implementation of technical measures, blocking filtering, removing content not suitable for children... Social network Youtube has announced that there will be a number of policy changes to protect children, including whether all content creators are required to mark video content as made for children; Don't deliver personalized ads for children's content.

Along with the above guidelines and policies, to create an important "shield" to protect children in cyberspace, the role of society, schools and families is very urgent through education and communication. inform and raise awareness for children and adolescents. From there, children can identify, distinguish good/bad and protect themselves in the online environment.

At school, propaganda sessions on skills to use the network safely and handle negative situations that occur on social networks are integrated into class activities, school activities, flag salutes or lessons with related content.

Some schools also include this content in training sessions on Team work and children's movements. Through the training model, students are equipped with basic knowledge about child protection such as: Children's Law; Things to know about children's right to participate; knowledge of preventing sexual abuse, violence, and child trafficking; Things to know about preventing and preventing accidents and injuries in children at home and the harmful effects of the Internet on children...

Besides school, family plays a great role in educating and guiding children on behavioral skills on the Internet. The state has policies, communication, education, and family support, but if parents do not care, children are not protected and cannot live safely. Therefore, families need to be clearly aware of their responsibility to prevent harm to children.

Parents and family members need to proactively protect their children in the online environment. Actively learn to raise awareness, knowledge, and ways to better protect your children on the Internet environment. Guide your children to exploit the strengths of technology, limit their exposure to harmful information online.

Quynh Nga