Lao Dong Newspaper had a conversation with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Hoai Son - Specialized Member of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Society - about the current situation of toxic short videos, algorithmic mechanisms to amplify negative content and the impacts on the awareness and value system of young people in the digital space.
Short videos are not all bad content, even many contents are valuable in terms of information, education, entertainment and creativity. According to you, what toxic short videos in digital space need to recognize and identify?
- In my opinion, first of all, it is necessary to avoid an extreme view that short videos are synonymous with bad content. Short videos are just a form of transmission. If used well, it can be a very lively "door" for young people to access history, heritage, science, art, life skills or beautiful stories in life. The problem is not in the length of the video but in the content being transmitted, how it is transmitted and the impact it creates.
Toxic short videos can be identified in some signs: distorting the truth; inciting violence and hatred; promoting unconventional lifestyles; vulgarizing social relationships; exploiting other people's private lives and pain to attract views; guiding dangerous behaviors; promoting superstition and fraud; or deliberately creating shock to manipulate emotions, especially for children and teenagers.
I think that we must pay attention to a more difficult area: content that is not necessarily against the law, but if repeated with high density, it can distort perceptual standards. A swear may just be a lack of culture, but thousands of videos consider swearing to be humorous, consider showing off wealth at all costs to be successful, and consider violence to be bravery, then it can gradually change the measure of value.
Therefore, when determining toxic content, we should not only ask "is this video illegal or not", but also ask the question: how is it contributing to the formation of people and how is it creating a digital cultural environment?
When users are continuously proposed by algorithms for content similar to what they just saw, is there a risk of forming a "content matrix" that makes young people increasingly drawn deeper into negative content, sir?
- I think this risk is real and this is the point that makes short video different from many traditional media types.
Previously, we actively chose quite a lot of things we read, watch or listen to. In today's digital environment, an increasingly large part of that choice is made by algorithms. Just stopping longer at a video, watching it again, commenting or sharing, the system can understand it as a hobby and continue to bring a series of similar contents. A very small initial choice can therefore quickly turn into an almost endless stream of experiences.
The most dangerous thing is when young people are placed in a "resonance chamber" where unusual behaviors appear so densely that they become normal. If a child continuously sees videos that consider violence strong, swear is personality, making money quickly is a measure of success, or mocking others is entertainment, then the problem is not only in each individual video. A whole system of value can gradually be formed.
Therefore, we should not simply blame young people for saying "if you don't like it, don't watch". They are interacting with systems designed very sophisticatedly to keep attention as long as possible.
It is necessary to give users more initiative: the right to understand why they are proposed that content, the right to adjust algorithms, the right to refresh the proposal line; and at the same time, stronger protection mechanisms are needed for the accounts of minors. The more technology has the ability to lead behavior, the greater social responsibility that comes with technology must be.
From a cultural and social perspective, he believes that the widespread dissemination of sensational, offensive, unstandardized content or promoting negative behaviors may leave what consequences for the digital cultural environment?
- What I am most worried about is not only a few bad videos appearing, but the process of normalizing the bad.
When offensive behaviors continuously receive millions of views, are shared, commented on and even help the performer earn a lot of money, society can inadvertently send a very dangerous signal that: if you want to be famous, you must be shocking, if you want to make money quickly, you must create controversy, the more you cross cultural boundaries, the easier it is to be noticed.
At that time, the first thing to be hurt is the value system. The boundary between fame and respectability, between difference and deviation, between creativity and offensiveness can become blurred. Especially for young people who are in the process of personality formation, the frequent repetition of such role models can deeply impact the concept of success, happiness and self-worth.
On a broader scale, a digital environment dominated by sensationalism, anger, offense, and immediate stimuli also undermines the quality of social dialogue. People are more likely to judge each other, less patient with more complex issues, and increasingly less likely to pay attention to values that take time to feel.
However, I still want to see the issue in a positive direction. The cyberspace is not just about "junk". There are many young people telling historical stories, promoting heritage, inspiring reading books, doing science, and protecting the environment with short videos.
Therefore, besides "cleaning up trash" in cyberspace, we must also know how to "plant flowers". The right also needs to be told well, the beauty also needs to be expressed attractively, and decent values must also be competitive in terms of attractiveness in the economy of attention.
