Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) has welcomed the approval of a programme to protect and supportchildren to interact in cyber environment in a healthy and creative manner in the2021-2025 period by Vietnamese Government.
This is the first national-level programme on child protection in the cyber environment.
UNICEF Representative in Vietnam Rana Flowers said that theInternet brings many opportunities, but also many risks. The new programme approved by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has taken into accountthe need to strike a balance between addressing the threats to children and thepromising changes that the digital environment might deliver to them.
It is about connecting children with innovative learningmethods, problem solving, and enhancing the understanding and skills they needto succeed in the digital world, she said.
According to Rana Flowers, solving the problem of childabuse on the Internet requires the commitment of the Government and theself-regulation of online platforms as well as management agencies.
However,the prevention of abuse in the cyber environment will only be successful whenthere is the active and full participation of parents and children themselvesequipped with information about risks as well as preventive measures and reportonline abuse.
She said the UNICEF expressed its concern about children'ssafety in the cyber environment in five key areas. That is adults unintentionallyprovide too much information for child abusers to commit crimes; children spendtoo much time playing violent games online; children are persuaded by friendsor bad people to share their sensitive images; children are vulnerable toonline fraud, bullying, and abuse by pedophiles who pretend to be of their sameage.
When abuse occurs on a cyber environment, parents are oftenunaware of the risks and do not know what their children are going throughonline. For children, they will feel lonely and sad. When bullying happens atschool, everyone can see it, but when it happens online, cruelty and abuse canhave a significant impact on children's mental health and self-esteem, makingthem feel isolated and lonely, Flowers said.
Parents should spend time talking with their children, identifyingprotection strategies and encouraging children to stand up for each other,promote kindness and protect each other from abuse, she added.
The UNICEF representative also called on people to acttogether to make the internet a safe environment for children to learn,communicate and express themselves.
According to a recent UNICEF survey, many young people inVietnam are victims of cyberbullying but three-quarters of them don’t knowwhere they can seek support. More and more cases of sex crimes and childtrafficking are being reported. However,few measures have been taken to protect them from the dangers of abuse by thedigital world or access to health content on the Internet in a safe way.
With the programme to protect children in the cyber environment,the UNICEF expected the Government of Vietnam to work with the information andcommunication technology industry to keep up with the pace of change andprotect children from dangers, harmful effects as well as ensuring that theinternet is always safe for children, she said.
The private sector and civil society should be encouraged tooffer different solutions and opportunities to protect children online, sheadded.
Under Decision No 830 signed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the national programme on child protection online aims to protect theprivacy of children and prevent and handle acts of abuse. Specifically, the programme focuses on supplying childrenwith age-appropriate knowledge and skills so that children can self-identifyand be able to protect themselves when online.
The programme includes initiatives in deploying newtechnologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to automaticallycollect and analyse early warnings on the content not suitable for children.
Websites with the national “.vn” domain and those with IPaddresses in Vietnam will be required to self-categorise content suitable forchildren's ages. Those who provide online services and applications forchildren have to self-deploy solutions to protect children and assist parentsor caregivers in managing children's use of applications and services.
Network operators and digital platform providers such asGoogle, Facebook, and Zalo will apply artificial intelligence technology andbig data analysis to filter videos and clips with malicious content./.
