Students during a class at Trung Vương Secondary School in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tùng

Nguyễn Hằng

HÀ NỘI — For children growing up in an increasingly connected world, the internet is a place to learn, play and socialise — but it can also expose them to risks that are becoming harder to detect and control.

Việt Nam has made significant progress in protecting children online, yet experts say rapidly evolving technology continues to test the country's ability to prevent abuse, identify offenders and protect young victims.

Gaps in public awareness, digital identification, evidence collection, inter-agency coordination and the protection of children’s privacy remain among the biggest obstacles to making existing safeguards more effective.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Đỗ Thái Huy, deputy head of the Office of Cybersecurity Information under the Ministry of Public Security’s Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department, said authorities continued to face difficulties in detecting, verifying, investigating and handling violations involving children online.

One of the fundamental problems is limited awareness of children’s rights and online risks, according to Huy. Children themselves may not recognise that they have become victims of unlawful behaviour, while families and the wider community may not have sufficient knowledge to identify violations targeting children.

“Victims and their families may also be held back by fear, anxiety and social stigma, making it harder for law enforcement agencies to obtain the timely and comprehensive information needed to investigate cases and combat crime,” Huy said.

Digital identification remains another significant challenge. Authorities are working to strengthen the identification of users of telecommunications, internet and other online services, but verifying users, particularly on digital platforms and value-added services used by children, remains difficult.

According to Huy, these gaps can be exploited by offenders who use anonymity to approach children and conceal criminal activities. They can create fake accounts, use false names or provide fabricated information to disguise their identities.

“Another challenge is the lack of effective coordination among state management agencies, law enforcement bodies, schools, families and technology companies in investigating crimes, particularly in information sharing, early warning and case handling,” he added.

Vũ Thị Hường, deputy director of the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid under the Ministry of Justice, said legal-aid providers faced many of the same difficulties as police, courts, prosecutors and schools in identifying unlawful behaviour against children online.

"Under the law on legal aid, organisations providing assistance are required to arrange private spaces for children to ensure confidentiality. In practice, however, providing suitable facilities can still be difficult," Hường said.

Children might also feel uncomfortable or intimidated when approaching authorities or legal-aid organisations.

To improve access, the legal-aid sector had developed a fully online public service allowing children to request assistance through a system connected to VNeID and receive support online.

However, Hường said the number of children using the service remained very low. This raised questions about why children remain reluctant to seek help or feel that existing services are not sufficiently accessible and child-friendly.

Criminal proceedings

From the perspective of criminal prosecution, Trần Thị Quế, a prosecutor at the Supreme People’s Procuracy, identified three major obstacles in dealing with high-tech crime cases involving children.

The first is the collection, preservation and authentication of electronic evidence.

Digital evidence is particularly vulnerable because it can be easily altered or deleted. Online offenders increasingly use anonymous accounts, virtual private networks and end-to-end encryption.

In cases involving online grooming, threats, extortion or coercion to send videos, offenders may immediately delete messages and accounts after committing an offence.

Screenshots are often an important source of evidence, but their legal validity can be challenged if investigators cannot provide the original files or verify server logs. Defence lawyers may argue that screenshots have been edited or manipulated.

Another difficulty arises from the international nature of online platforms.

Servers operated by major platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Google are often located overseas.

“Requests for original data through mutual legal assistance procedures can take six months to a year, while criminal proceedings are subject to statutory deadlines,” she said.

At the same time, harmful content can spread widely within just a few hours.

The second major obstacle is the risk of secondary trauma and the lack of standardised methods for measuring psychological harm.

Children may have to recount traumatic experiences repeatedly to investigators, prosecutors and courts.

“Without child-sensitive procedures, repeated questioning can reactivate fear and cause further psychological harm,” she added.

Authorities also lack sufficiently comprehensive standards for assessing psychological harm to children, making it difficult in some cases to establish the extent of harm and determine appropriate legal action.

The third challenge is controlling the spread of sensitive information and protecting children’s privacy.

“Although the 2016 Law on Children guarantees children’s right to privacy, authorities currently have no technical tools capable of completely removing sensitive material once it has been circulated through closed online groups or other websites,” she said.

Copies may remain on third-party devices even after the original material has been removed, making it extremely difficult to prevent further dissemination.

A student speaks at the 2026 Forum on Listening to Children's Voices, themed 'For a Safe and Friendly Online Environment for Children'', in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vũ

Stronger legal obligations

To address these problems, Huy called for stronger rules on online user identification and the management of children’s use of online services. He described effective identification as a fundamental measure for reducing opportunities for criminals to exploit anonymity and technology to conceal unlawful activities.

He also called for clearer, more specific and enforceable legal obligations for online service providers, accompanied by sufficiently strong sanctions to ensure compliance.

At the same time, regulations should be developed carefully so that stronger child protection does not unnecessarily restrict lawful users’ access to information, education and communication.

Huy said Việt Nam could study the experience of countries including Australia, Indonesia and Turkey, as well as several European countries, which have adopted stronger measures to protect children online. International experience, however, should be assessed carefully and adapted to Việt Nam’s circumstances.

He also stressed the importance of improving public awareness.

"Parents and schools need to help children understand their rights, recognise online abuse and know how to respond when incidents occur. Children should not be left to deal with cybercriminals alone,” he said, urging parents and schools to support children, listen to them and avoid blaming victims.

Such support could help adults identify early signs of cyberbullying, sexual abuse, grooming and attempts to persuade children to engage in unlawful activities.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Quế proposed a number of measures to strengthen the criminal justice response.

One proposal is to criminalise online grooming and manipulation of children for sexual exploitation and enable authorities to intervene at the stage of online contact, rather than waiting until physical abuse occurs.

She also called for unified guidance on electronic evidence among police, prosecutors and courts, including procedures for preserving, freezing and extracting raw digital data and establishing the authenticity of electronic evidence.

"Another priority is the development of an emergency procedure for assessing psychological harm to child victims. The Ministry of Health and judicial agencies should work together to develop standards for assessing psychological trauma caused by online violence," she said.

Quế also called for child-friendly judicial procedures under the Law on Juvenile Justice, including the principle that children should give statements only once whenever possible.

In practice, authorities have begun using audio and video recordings involving prosecutors, investigators, guardians and psychological experts. Such recordings can be used throughout proceedings, reducing the need for children to repeat traumatic accounts multiple times.

Strict measures are also needed to protect victims’ identities, including closed hearings and technology to blur or conceal identifying information.

Quế proposed a rapid, four-party coordination mechanism involving investigators, prosecutors, police and the national child protection hotline 111. The mechanism would allow authorities to freeze accounts and stop the further spread of harmful content as soon as reports are received.

Strengthen safeguards

Technology companies also have a crucial role to play.

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo, representing Viettel Group, said the group viewed its responsibilities as covering three areas: protecting personal data, preventing and handling harmful content, and cooperating with competent authorities and other stakeholders to protect children online.

She said businesses would need effective tools to verify users’ ages under proposed regulations on online services.

"Viettel has proposed the development of national standards for age verification, allowing technology companies to develop technical solutions based on a common framework. It has also proposed a shared age-verification service using VNeID and the national population database," Thảo said.

Under the proposed model, a company requesting verification would receive only confirmation of whether a user meet the required age threshold. It would not receive other personal information.

“Such a system could improve accuracy while reducing the amount of personal data that companies need to collect and store,” Thảo added.

The company also called for a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism involving state agencies, telecom operators, internet service providers and cross-border platforms.

Responsibilities should be clearly defined for detecting, reporting and blocking harmful content, sharing information for investigations and producing assessments of online risks to children, she added.

Trần Văn Đạt, deputy director of the Department of Student Affairs under the Ministry of Education and Training, said digital safety education should become more practical, engaging and appropriate for students.

He identified three priorities: content, teaching methods and communication.

"Digital safety is already incorporated into subjects including information technology, technology, ethics and experiential activities," Đạt said. "However, the curriculum is already crowded, meaning schools need to focus on practical and age-appropriate content."

Students should also learn through real-life activities and competitions rather than relying solely on theoretical lessons.

Communication should make greater use of visual materials such as infographics and videos, and modern channels, including official Zalo and Facebook accounts operated by state agencies and organisations.

Students should be equipped with skills to protect personal information, identify harmful content, use smartphones and the internet responsibly, and respond appropriately to online risks.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director Hường said legal-aid agencies should also strengthen prevention and early intervention by raising public awareness, cooperating with social organisations and improving coordination with criminal justice agencies.

Technology should be used more effectively in legal-aid services and child protection, while staff should receive additional training in information technology and digital transformation.

She also called for greater exchanges with international experts and other countries on how to handle online child abuse and, importantly, how to build trust with children so they feel safe enough to seek help. — VNS