Recently, the spread of violent incidents has raised deep concerns about the psychological impact of toxic online content on adolescents. Unlike adults, who have experience-based filters, young people are more vulnerable to violent images and methods, increasing the risk of imitation or absorbing harmful thinking into their subconscious after viewing toxic online information.

Research on the impact of the Internet in Vietnam has revealed the scale of the problem: With tens of millions of frequent users, misuse has become a major social risk.

Pham Manh Ha, psychology expert, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and his research team presented alarming figures, showing that 14.5 percent of adolescents suffer from “addiction” to technology and information, with more than half showing signs of dependency.

“This means there is a large group of adolescents spending too much time in an unregulated online environment,” Ha said.

According to Ha, it is in this unregulated environment that contagion (understood simply as ‘absorbing content’ after repeated exposure) becomes highly influential.

Adolescents, especially those who overuse the Internet for entertainment and violent games, tend to mimic and learn the behavioral patterns they encounter.

“Research results clearly show. The more adolescents overuse the Internet, the more they tend to adopt negative values, a materialistic lifestyle, and a preference for violence in communication (seen in the tendency to use violence to resolve conflict). Extreme violent content online is no longer just news but becomes an action model that the brain receives, stores, copies, and may ‘recreate’ into a new, more dangerous harmful behavior in real life or in thinking,” Ha said.

He added that the absorption of violent content goes hand in hand with declining traditional moral values. “Research shows that among those who overuse the Internet, negative values such as opportunism and selfishness rise, while positive values such as honesty and non-greed become blurred. This behavior is reinforced by group pressure within the virtual online environment,” Ha said.

Studies also show that online peer groups have the strongest influence on adolescents’ perception (up to 46.8 percent), far greater than family influence (only 14.1 percent).

“These virtual peer groups often promote a liberal, individualistic lifestyle and encourage breaking away from shared values and norms, which they see as limiting freedom. When adolescents embrace violence and materialism within online peer groups, it erodes moral boundaries and increases the likelihood of acting on the negative values they have absorbed,” Ha said.

Among the alarming issues is the tendency to seek pleasure in pain and abuse - an outcome of complex interactions between biology, psychology, and life experience. “Such extreme tragedies serve as the strongest warning, forcing us to remove the prejudice and examine the issue through a scientific lens; viewing these behaviors not only as violations of law and social ethics but also as symptoms of deep psychological disorders,” Ha said.

Building psychological immunity

To prevent young people from absorbing violent behaviors and developing distorted thinking, Ha says intervention is needed at social and family levels.

The family is the first “shield.” Research confirms that family factors correlate with Internet misuse: Positive parental influence through guidance on technology use reduces dependency. Parents must model ethical conduct and lifestyle, while also acting as “experts” in technology by providing knowledge and skills to help children build “psychological immunity” against harmful content.

Along with this, skills and content control must be strengthened. “We need more education on responsible Internet use rather than extreme restrictions. At the same time, authorities must be more decisive in supplementing and perfecting the legal framework, while encouraging businesses to create attractive and healthy services to draw adolescents away from toxic content,” Ha said.

The role of social organizations is also important. Organizations like the Youth Union and student associations need to increase healthy recreational activities, creating positive real-life environments to reduce the influence of “virtual friends.”

“The overuse of the Internet by young people, their exposure to violent content, and their vulnerability to absorbing negative values is a warning of an ethical and psychological crisis. To protect the younger generation from destructive thinking, we need serious investment in digital literacy education and stronger value orientation from families, building a solid ‘fortress’ against the penetration of harmful information,” the expert emphasized.

Thanh Hung