Seminar discusses social media bullying among students

ABO/VNA – A seminar was held in Hanoi on January 2 to prevent and intervene in social media bullying among students by the University of Education – Vietnam National University (VNU – UED).

Cyber bullying is increasing among Vietnamese students.(Photo: laodong.vn)

Participants assessed cyber-bullying among teenagers in the world and Vietnam and introduced some programmes and strategies on preventing online cyber-bullying.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Nam from the VNU-UED said that online bullying includes sending, posting or sharing negative, harmful or false content about someone via digital devices, causing embarrassment or humiliation.

 

According to a latest research of experts from the VNU – UED, 30.6 percent of Vietnamese secondary students are victims of at least one kind of cyber-bulling in two times or more, while 26.7 percent bully others two times or more.

 

Nam said that the vast majority of bullies are victims themselves, and students have various responses to bullying but they rarely tell the stories to their parents or teachers.

 

At the seminar, experts introduced ten programmes and strategies to prevent cyber bullying in Australia, the US, Spain, Finland, Germany and Italy, with main contents of raising students’ awareness of their rights and responsibilities when joining the Internet, and improving teachers’ capacity in the field.

In Vietnam, a research group of the VNU-UED has piloted a preventive programme for secondary school students.

 

Dr Tran Van Cong said that the programme is designed for children aging 11-18 to reduce the rate of online bullying by equipping them with necessary skills to protect themselves from bullying and use internet safely, and raise awareness of students, teachers and parents of the matter.

 

(Source: VNA)