A workshop was held jointly by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund in Hanoi to collect opinions on the project to “protect and support children to interact healthily and creatively in the cyber environment during the 2020-2025 period”.
According to a press release, the project, which is expected to be submitted to the Prime Minister in June, aims to protect the personal secrets, privacy and other rights of children when they access information and participate in activities online as well as support them to interact healthily and creatively in cyberspace.
Proposing measures to protect children on the internet, the Deputy Head of the Information Security Department under the MIC, Hoang Minh Tien, emphasised five basic issues: the legal basis of Vietnam; effective methods to educate and propagate adolescents; the use of technologies to support children in the cyber environment; the improvement of the internet usage capacity of the whole society and international cooperation to solve problems related to children in cyberspace.
At the workshop, participants offered opinions on how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement and inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms in child protection in the cyber environment.
They also proposed policies to encourage and attract businesses, especially Vietnamese technology enterprises, to invest in building products and services to protect and support children in terms of their ability to interact healthily and creatively in cyberspace.
The MIC will call for technology enterprises to join hands in developing applications and useful programmes for children.
Additionally, delegates gave opinions on the renovation of communications work, especially through social media, in order to raise public awareness of the issues mentioned in the project.
MIC also recently released a statement warning citizens to watch out for strange calls and not send money or provide personal information to strangers over the phone.
Recently, many people have reported calls from unknown numbers informing the receiver about parcels from relatives or gifts.
Some callers tell receivers they are suspected of being involved in a serious crime. All of them require users to transfer a certain amount of money, otherwise, they will not receive gifts or be prosecuted. However, these are all phone calls from scammers, with the purpose of appropriating property and money.
The Ministry, therefore, sent messages to phone subscribers warning about the issue. People could call the police or phone number of the Criminal Police Department to report the scams.
The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said they received many customer complaints about receiving calls from foreign numbers.
These are phone calls from foreign subscribers to VinaPhone subscribers, including those from OTT applications in order to entice customers to call back to generate unintended telecommunications charges.
VNPT recommends customers to be very careful when receiving any unusual calls or messages to avoid fraud.
The MIC is the policy-making and regulatory body in the fields of press, telecommunications, radio frequency, IT, electronics, broadcasting, and the national information and communication infrastructure management of related public services on behalf of the government.