Lao Dong Newspaper recorded the opinion of Mr. Nguyen Trong An - former Deputy Director of the Department of Child Protection and Care (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs), Deputy Director of the Research and Training Center for Community Development (RTCCD) - the only Vietnamese person honored by the International HealthRight organization for his great contributions to the work of child protection and care.
Please do not "love with the rod and spank"!
Currently, child violence occurs everywhere in Vietnam, from family to school to society and is on the rise due to many reasons.
First of all, we must mention the neglect of family education. In the past, family education was very important, but now family education has been neglected. For many years, parents have neglected, ignored, and not cared about their children. They have been caught up in making a living, making money, and other concerns... and have not taken care of their children.
Many families lack the skills to educate children, do not know how to teach their children. Many families do not give love, but teach their children with whips, because they themselves do not have enough knowledge and skills to educate their children, and we lack a team to support and educate the community, although the Law on Children 2016 has issued regulations.
That is why many families teach their children with violence and whips, without using kindness and love to teach their children. The idea of “love and whipping” still exists today. Children who grow up with whips and violence have the seeds of violence in them. Later, when they grow up, if they are not well educated and do not live in a good environment, that seed will sprout and grow like soil, turning the child into a person with violent tendencies.
Second is the issue of education in schools. Even education experts recognize that the current education sector is going astray, as education in schools only focuses on sample essays, cramming scholarly knowledge, raising hands, and certificates of achievement, while lacking attention to moral education, psychological education, and teaching life skills to children.
Most schools in the current education system do not have psychology teachers or school psychology corners. Meanwhile, countries around the world and even in the ASEAN system are very concerned about this issue. Because of that lack, children do not receive psychological support to develop a healthy psychology in parallel with the pressures of studying, cultural achievements... even children with psychological trauma, facing frustrations at home, outside, friends... are not promptly informed to advise, relieve, and balance their psychology, in order to reduce school violence. Therefore, school violence is still increasing day by day.
The third cause is the inevitable consequence of social negativity. We can see the serious decline of morality and social culture, the rise of money-based society, and human selfishness. And then children are affected. Social management is lax, when the agencies assigned to manage society such as the management of addictive substances including alcohol, tobacco have not been resolute, and the management of social networks is very problematic. All kinds of dark, violent games are rampant, and images of bloodthirsty violence, beatings, and animal beheadings are rampant on social networks such as Facebook and TikTok. All of these have been "stuffed" into children's heads, affecting their psychology, developing violent tendencies.
The final reason is that the Vietnamese child protection system is relatively complete in theory but in practice is not effective. The 2016 Law on Children stipulates very clearly in Articles 47-48, but for the past 6-7 years, we have not yet established a network of social workers and completed child protection at 3 levels. We lack a network of social workers, and also lack community child protection collaborators. Any localities that have them are only part-time, and do not have a professional team. Therefore, problems of child abuse, violence and injuries have not been detected and prevented early.
We have made strong international commitments at the sessions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but up to now, we have not yet completed the Juvenile Justice System and Child-Friendly Courts. Therefore, from the initial investigation and questioning stages of children's violations, there is a risk of lacking objectivity and being unfriendly to children, until the trial, when facing the enforcement forces, the children are very scared. Therefore, they have unintentionally been deprived of the opportunity to speak, and adults have not had the opportunity to listen to children. There are even trials that have not been conducted fairly and strictly. These are the four main reasons that have caused the current situation of violence against children to exist and tend to increase.
Physical violence such as beatings and injuries can be seen and healed, although they affect children psychologically. However, mental injuries, humiliation, scolding, contempt, and alienation... affect children's psychology very deeply, haunting them heavily and persistently, following them throughout their lives. The child will always have to live in fear and anxiety.
In fact, there have been studies that have shown that children who are subjected to mental and psychological violence have led to mental disorders, many of them develop depression, anxiety, and when they grow up, they self-harm and commit suicide, causing social disorders. A 2011 study by Monash University (Australia) has studied cases and concluded that children who live in violence will become adults with violent tendencies in the future.
The "decoy" situation still exists
In the current context, it is necessary to create an environment for children to have the opportunity to speak up, to speak up and express their opinions. There must be solutions to befriend children, listen to them, create forums for children to express their thoughts, their thoughts and opinions need to be respected, and what children suggest appropriately needs to be implemented for the benefit of children.
We have all the regulations, the Law clearly states how children should speak, which agencies listen, which agencies resolve. There are solutions, the Law clearly stipulates, we have also launched many movements, but in fact we are falling into a state of "shouting slogans", "showing off", but the actions are very poor.
I think we need to change. We have the solutions, the documents have been issued, the forums have been organized, we just need to implement them properly. We have to listen, take note and review whether the actions have been thorough or not.
To get to the bottom of the problem, we need to go back to the root cause of the problem, which is to promote education, family education, and school education. Parents must be good role models for their children. Listen to what their children say and truly be their close friends.
First of all, we need to focus on educating people about morality, about discipline, about loving children. We need to educate them from a young age. In educating people, family education is the most important.
Along with education in schools and social education. As I said, parents must be an example of love for their children. Listen to what your children say, do not use violence to educate them. If there is a violation, apply positive discipline. If a child is educated in love from a young age, without beatings, he will grow up to be a loving, non-violent person.
Next, I think it is necessary to quickly complete the 3-level child protection network, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 47 - 48 of the Law on Children. The network of social workers and child protection collaborators is extremely important, a community must have it, to be able to detect early, prevent early, not let risks happen because child protection is prevention.
Finally, the National Assembly Committees must strengthen the function of supervising the implementation of laws and policies in ministries and branches, and improve the public ethics of the 17 agencies assigned by the 2016 Law on Children to protect children.
