Students in the northern port city of Hai Phong eagerly join a training class on how to cope with fake news on the internet held by the Vietnam News Agency Youth Union. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Internet users in Vietnam, especially children,face many risks online, according to experts.
Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research andCommunication Development, told Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper that the issue isrooted in the weak awareness and poor digital security skills of internetusers, including children.
“Using the internet and smartphones in Vietnam is like sitting on a big vehicleon a highway but without knowing safe driving skills. Without safe drivingskills, even if the road is nice and good, an accident can happen easily,” saidDong.
“Our digital security skills education is very limited,” he said.
A deeper-rooted problem is that education has not been updated on technologytrends, leading to a lack of training on digital security.
Teaching content is often lacking vividness and is rigid, so it is difficult towin children’s attention, he said.
Besides, in family education, parents can easily provide computers andsmartphones for their children, but they do not have enough knowledge andskills to guide and supervise them on safe use.
“Safeguarding in digital environments is a big challenge,” said Dong.
From the State's perspective, there are two jobs that are most important. Thefirst is that educational programmes for citizens must feature not onlycomputer knowledge but also digital skills.
Schools must have a digital skills subject instead of today's computer science.In this subject, students would not only learn programming, how to createfiles, software and word processing, but also how to behave on social networks.
“Teachers should teach children to distinguish inaccurate information, what isbullying on social networks, what to do when faced with bullying on socialnetworks and teach children not to share any personal information on socialmedia which can lead to long-term risks,” he said.
Dong said this subject must be educated early because preschoolers also haveexposure to digital devices.
Communication on digital security
Dong said he believed ministries also needed to implement a broad nationwidecommunication programme on digital security.
“In the past, we had traffic safety campaigns, nowadays we also need campaignson safety in the digital environment because the harmful effects of unsafety onthe internet are as great as traffic insecurity,” he said.
Vietnamese businesses and social networks in Vietnam have not paid muchattention to the classification of information content to suit users’ ages.
In developed countries, said Dong, they carry out labelling for different ages.State regulators must monitor compliance with content classification forlabelling and comply with corporate user protection responsibilities.
Social organisations also play a very important role in building awarenesscampaigns.
“I want to emphasise the synchronisation of State management agencies, businesses,and social organisations that will solve the problem comprehensively, moresystematically and methodically. This is a long story, not a year or two, but avery long process for many years to come,” said Dong.
On the sidelines of the seminar on Early Education through interactive booksheld by the French Institute in Vietnam and Dinh Ti Books on October 24 in Hanoi,education expert Lai Thi Hai Ly told Tuoi tre that at present, many childrenare being "activated" by television and YouTube because their parents"release" their children to televisions and electronic devices.
“Some children watch television a lot, imitate English speaking on televisionvery well, so their parents think they are a prodigy, but in fact, the child isjust like a parrot with no thinking and no response. These children graduallyonly know to interact with televisions and the screens of electronic devicesbut lose the ability to interact and connect with people around them,” said Ly.
Ly suggested parents take their children out so they can interact with otherpeople and the world around them.
Interactive books for children between zero and six years old are also a goodchoice, she added.
“The book is both like a child's toy, for children to touch, interact with anda tool for parents to connect with children because interactive books forceparents and teachers to read with their children,” she said./.
Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research andCommunication Development, told Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper that the issue isrooted in the weak awareness and poor digital security skills of internetusers, including children.
“Using the internet and smartphones in Vietnam is like sitting on a big vehicleon a highway but without knowing safe driving skills. Without safe drivingskills, even if the road is nice and good, an accident can happen easily,” saidDong.
“Our digital security skills education is very limited,” he said.
A deeper-rooted problem is that education has not been updated on technologytrends, leading to a lack of training on digital security.
Teaching content is often lacking vividness and is rigid, so it is difficult towin children’s attention, he said.
Besides, in family education, parents can easily provide computers andsmartphones for their children, but they do not have enough knowledge andskills to guide and supervise them on safe use.
“Safeguarding in digital environments is a big challenge,” said Dong.
From the State's perspective, there are two jobs that are most important. Thefirst is that educational programmes for citizens must feature not onlycomputer knowledge but also digital skills.
Schools must have a digital skills subject instead of today's computer science.In this subject, students would not only learn programming, how to createfiles, software and word processing, but also how to behave on social networks.
“Teachers should teach children to distinguish inaccurate information, what isbullying on social networks, what to do when faced with bullying on socialnetworks and teach children not to share any personal information on socialmedia which can lead to long-term risks,” he said.
Dong said this subject must be educated early because preschoolers also haveexposure to digital devices.
Communication on digital security
Dong said he believed ministries also needed to implement a broad nationwidecommunication programme on digital security.
“In the past, we had traffic safety campaigns, nowadays we also need campaignson safety in the digital environment because the harmful effects of unsafety onthe internet are as great as traffic insecurity,” he said.
Vietnamese businesses and social networks in Vietnam have not paid muchattention to the classification of information content to suit users’ ages.
In developed countries, said Dong, they carry out labelling for different ages.State regulators must monitor compliance with content classification forlabelling and comply with corporate user protection responsibilities.
Social organisations also play a very important role in building awarenesscampaigns.
“I want to emphasise the synchronisation of State management agencies, businesses,and social organisations that will solve the problem comprehensively, moresystematically and methodically. This is a long story, not a year or two, but avery long process for many years to come,” said Dong.
On the sidelines of the seminar on Early Education through interactive booksheld by the French Institute in Vietnam and Dinh Ti Books on October 24 in Hanoi,education expert Lai Thi Hai Ly told Tuoi tre that at present, many childrenare being "activated" by television and YouTube because their parents"release" their children to televisions and electronic devices.
“Some children watch television a lot, imitate English speaking on televisionvery well, so their parents think they are a prodigy, but in fact, the child isjust like a parrot with no thinking and no response. These children graduallyonly know to interact with televisions and the screens of electronic devicesbut lose the ability to interact and connect with people around them,” said Ly.
Ly suggested parents take their children out so they can interact with otherpeople and the world around them.
Interactive books for children between zero and six years old are also a goodchoice, she added.
“The book is both like a child's toy, for children to touch, interact with anda tool for parents to connect with children because interactive books forceparents and teachers to read with their children,” she said./.
VNA
