Statistics presented in the seminar reveal that in Vietnam, the Internet is available in 99.7 percent of current localities. Until March 2023, about two-thirds of 24.7 million Vietnamese children can access the cyberspace.
Another useful survey done by Google in 2022 displays that the average age of Vietnamese children using a mobile device is 9 years old as opposed to the international counterpart of 13 years old. Particularly, after the Covid-19 pandemic, this age range in Vietnam drops to 6-7 years old.
The Internet is obviously a practical tool to obtain information and learn new knowledge for personal development as well as a wonderful way to connect to the world. Nevertheless, ill-intention people are also using this virtual environment to harm the healthy growth of Vietnamese children.
According to the Public Security Ministry, during the three years from 2021, the police prosecuted 553 defendants in 484 cases for such crimes as carrying out sexual intercourse or sexual acts with people from 13 to under 16 years old, raping people from 13 to under 16 years old, doing sexual harassment to people under 16 years old, using information of people under 16 years old for pornographic purposes, trafficking people under 16 years old, and spreading pornographic works.
The police also punished 779 individuals for committing acts of violating children's rights and causing harm to children in cyberspace. Functional agencies were able to block 30,000 websites with ill content (illegal content, pornography, online gambling, scamming, violent content).
Deputy Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang proposed that all ministries, functional agencies, socio-political organizations, associations, and businesses must have higher awareness about their roles in protecting children on the virtual environment, which is an essential part of ensuring human security.
In addition, the police forces at all localities should carry out more activities to protect children against harmful information while actively tracking cybercriminals that abuse children in cyberspace.
