Young people accessing bad and toxic information, even by accident, is very harmful.

Recently, the spread of violent incidents has raised deep concerns about the impact of harmful content on social networks on the psychology of teenagers. Unlike adults with experienced filters, young people are vulnerable to violent images and methods, leading to the risk of learning or automatically forming new violent thoughts in the subconscious after viewing harmful information online.

Research on the impact of the internet in Vietnam has shown the scope of the problem: With tens of millions of regular users, abuse has become a major social risk.

Sharing with VietNamNet reporter , Associate Professor Dr. Pham Manh Ha (psychology expert, Hanoi University of Science and Technology) and the research team gave alarming figures, showing that up to 14.5% of teenagers are "addicted" to technology and information, of which more than half show signs of dependence.

“This means that there is a large group of teenagers spending too much time in an uncontrolled online environment,” Mr. Ha said.

According to Mr. Ha, it is in this uncontrolled environment that the mechanism of infection (which can be simply understood as 'permeating' after many exposures) takes effect strongly.

Adolescents, especially those who abuse the Internet for entertainment purposes and play violent games, tend to emulate and learn from the behavioral patterns they are exposed to.

“The research results clearly demonstrate that the more adolescents abuse the Internet, the more they tend to adopt negative values, a pragmatic lifestyle and promote violence in communication (shown through the tendency to use violence to resolve disputes). Extreme violent content on the Internet is not just news, but a method of action that the brain receives, stores, copies and can be 'reinvented' into a new, more dangerous method of causing harm in real life or in thinking,” said Mr. Ha.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Manh Ha, psychologist, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Photo: Le Anh Dung.

The expert said that exposure to violent content is accompanied by a decline in traditional moral values. “Research shows that in the group of Internet abusers, negative values such as opportunism and selfishness are promoted, while positive values such as honesty and non-greed are blurred. This behavior is reinforced by the group pressure mechanism in the virtual network environment,” Mr. Ha said.

According to Mr. Ha, studies also show that groups of friends on social networks have the strongest influence on the perception of teenagers (accounting for 46.8%), much higher than family (only 14.1%). “This group of virtual friends often encourages a liberal, individualistic lifestyle and frees individuals from common values and standards that they consider to hinder freedom. When teenagers promote violence and a pragmatic lifestyle in their online friend groups, it erodes moral boundaries and increases the risk of acting according to negative values that have been ingrained,” Mr. Ha said.

Among them, there are alarming issues such as the preference for seeking pleasure in pain and violence, which are the result of a complex intersection between biology, psychology and life experience. “It is these extreme tragedies that are the strongest warnings, forcing us to remove the veil of prejudice to look at the problem through a scientific lens; considering these behaviors not only condemnable in terms of law and social ethics but also as symptoms of deep psychological disorders,” said Mr. Ha.

Need to build psychological resistance

To prevent the risk of young people being exposed to violent behavior and developing deviant thinking, according to Mr. Ha, there needs to be synchronous intervention from social and family levels.

In particular, the family is the first “shield”. Research confirms that family factors are correlated with Internet abuse: Positive influence from parents through guidance on technology use will reduce the rate of dependence of young people. Parents need to set an example in ethics and lifestyle, and at the same time act as “experts” in technology, providing knowledge and skills so that children have “resistance” to bad and toxic information.

Along with that, it is necessary to strengthen skills and control content. “It is necessary to increase education on skills for responsible internet use, instead of extreme prohibition. At the same time, the authorities need to be more drastic in supplementing and perfecting the legal corridor, encouraging businesses to create more attractive and healthy services to attract teenagers and thereby stay away from toxic and harmful information sources,” Mr. Ha said.

The role of social organizations is also very important. Organizations such as the Youth Union and Student Association need to increase healthy entertainment activities and create positive communication environments in real life to reduce the influence of "virtual" friendship groups.

“The fact that young people abuse the Internet, are exposed to violent content and are easily influenced by negative values is a warning of a moral and psychosocial health crisis. To protect the young generation from the risk of developing destructive thinking, there needs to be serious investment in digital skills education and enhancing the role of family in guiding values, to build a solid 'wall' against the intrusion of harmful information,” the expert advised.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/gioi-tre-tiep-can-thong-tin-xau-doc-du-tinh-co-cung-rat-nguy-hai-2468099.html