The root cause lies in the lack of awareness and digital safety skills among internet users in Vietnam, including children.
Digital Safety Education
Internet and smartphone users in Vietnam are like people riding powerful motorcycles on the information highway without having learned safe driving skills. Without the proper skills, even with good roads and vehicles, accidents are easily inevitable.
Our digital safety education is still very limited. The deeper root of this issue is that the current school education system has not yet caught up with the trends in technology, leading to outdated curricula that do not address digital safety. The subject of computer science in schools is heavily focused on computing knowledge, with only a vague inclusion of safety and security knowledge.
The lessons taught are often lackluster and rigid, making it difficult to engage children's attention. Meanwhile, in families, parents are often too lenient when providing computers and phones to children, but lack the knowledge and skills to guide or supervise children’s use of safety features.
Protecting safety in the digital environment is a significant challenge. There are two key tasks the government must focus on. First, educational programs aimed at citizens must be framed in terms of digital citizenship, not just computer science knowledge, but also digital skills.
The subject of digital skills should replace the current computer science subject in schools. In this new subject, students would not only learn programming, file creation, software, and document processing but also be taught how to interact with social media, distinguish misinformation, recognize online bullying, and how to handle such situations. Children should also be taught what personal information should not be shared on social media, as doing so could lead to long-term risks.
Digital skills education should start early, as even preschool children are now beginning to interact with digital devices.
Widespread Digital Safety Awareness Campaigns Needed
The government ministries also need to implement a nationwide digital safety awareness campaign. Previously, we had a traffic safety campaign, and now we need similar campaigns for digital safety, as the dangers of unsafe internet usage are just as serious as traffic accidents.
From the perspective of businesses, Vietnamese enterprises and social media platforms have not yet focused enough on classifying content appropriately for different age groups.
In developed countries, they implement age-specific content labels. Government agencies should supervise the compliance with content classification and labeling and ensure businesses take responsibility for protecting users.
Social organizations also play a vital role in building awareness-raising campaigns.
I would like to emphasize that the coordination of government agencies, businesses, and social organizations will provide a comprehensive, systematic, and more structured approach to solving this issue. This is a long-term matter, not something that can be fixed in a year or two, but a long process spanning many years to come.
Nguyen Quang Dong - Institute for Policy Studies and Media Development
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