Prevent online scams with basic digital skills

Training program on safe Internet and social network usage skills for children in the context of artificial intelligence development

Vietnam currently has more than 80 million Internet users, accounting for about 81% of the population ( Digital 2025 Report). The popularity of the Internet and mobile devices has brought many benefits in learning, working and accessing public services. However, it has also been accompanied by a rapid increase in high-tech crimes, with increasingly sophisticated and unpredictable levels. According to data from the Ministry of Public Security , in the first 6 months of 2025, more than 21,000 online fraud cases were detected and handled, an increase of nearly 18% compared to 2024. This figure not only shows an increasing trend in quantity, but also reflects unpredictable changes in the way criminal networks operate. Many new tricks have emerged: from impersonating authorities to make calls and send threatening messages, to building disguised financial applications to attract tens of thousands of participants. Notably, AI and Deepfake technology are increasingly used to fake voices and faces, creating fraudulent situations that are difficult to distinguish between real and fake.

Many countries have considered digital security a core competency of 21st century citizens. In Singapore, the Digital Defense program is implemented from primary school, helping children learn how to identify fake news and protect their personal accounts. The European Union (EU) launched the Safer Internet for Kids campaign, attracting millions of online participants each year, contributing to shaping a culture of digital security for the younger generation. From international experience, it can be seen that in Vietnam, improving basic digital skills for the community is not only an urgent requirement to limit economic damage, but also an important pillar in the strategy to ensure national security in cyberspace. Each citizen needs to become a "digital shield" who uses the internet responsibly, knows how to protect themselves and join hands to maintain a safe digital environment.

Workshop "Women, Peace and Cybersecurity - Raising awareness and capacity for women and girls in responding to challenges in cyberspace"

Basic digital skills for each target group

To build a digitally safe community, it is essential to develop a basic set of digital skills appropriate to each target group, because each group of citizens has different characteristics, risks and needs.

First of all, for students, this is the age group that is often exposed to the Internet and social networks, and is easily affected by fake information or online traps. Therefore, they need to be equipped with the ability to secure their personal accounts by setting strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication. In addition, it is necessary to emphasize the ability to identify fake news, fraudulent links, friend requests, and suspicious activities. Equally important, civilized behavior skills in cyberspace will help students avoid falling into online bullying or being taken advantage of by bad guys.

For workers and laborers, the nature of their jobs makes them easy targets for “easy work, high salary” advertising tricks or disguised loan applications. Therefore, this group of people needs to be more vigilant and guided on how to protect personal financial information, in which the core rule is to absolutely not share OTP codes or QR codes with strangers. At the same time, when using digital applications in daily life such as online banking, medical services or public administration, they need to master the principles of safe use to avoid being taken advantage of by criminals.

For the elderly, the main difficulty comes from their lack of access to technology, making them vulnerable to phone scams or fake links. Therefore, they need to be guided through basic operations to avoid accidentally accessing harmful content, and must be especially vigilant against calls impersonating the police, banks or courts. To minimize risks, an effective solution is to consult children or relatives before making large financial transactions...

From the above analysis, it can be seen that digital skills cannot be applied in a general model for everyone, but need to be designed in a simple, intuitive, practical and suitable direction for each target group. Only then can skills become sustainable habits, maintained and repeated regularly, instead of falling into the state of "learning once and forgetting".

Building digital safety skills from awareness to habit

Over the years, the world has implemented typical initiatives such as “Safer Internet Day” to spread the message of self-protection in cyberspace. From that experience, Vietnam can completely replicate it with programs suitable for the domestic context. We can start by launching the “Every citizen is a digital shield” movement nationwide, calling on each citizen to perform at least one cyber safety action every day, such as updating passwords, enabling two-factor authentication or reporting spam messages. It is necessary to organize online competitions on digital skills for students; thereby not only creating a useful playground but also contributing to forming digital defense habits early, when awareness is at its most easily formed stage. In addition, creating short, vivid videos illustrating online fraud tricks and spreading them on Tiktok, Youtube, Zalo - platforms that cybercriminals often take advantage of, helps the warning message spread quickly to the most vulnerable people. In particular, the cooperation of the press, social networks and mass organizations will create a widespread "community wave", contributing to raising social awareness, gradually forming a sustainable and long-term digital safety culture.

Digital safety campaigns have a three-layered mechanism of action. First, at the awareness level, the campaign helps the public understand the existence of risks and be able to identify dangerous situations, such as scam messages, fake calls or fake links. Next, at the behavioral level, when the message is repeated regularly and linked to specific actions, such as changing passwords regularly, enabling two-factor authentication, reporting abusive content - users will begin to change their behavior in reality. Finally, at the social habit level, when safe behaviors are maintained and spread by many individuals, they will gradually become common norms, thereby forming a sustainable and self-regulating digital safety culture.

Thus, it can be seen that the propaganda campaign is not a “one-way information” activity, but needs to be designed as a systematic social change process, in which messages, communication tools and community participation interact closely with each other. It is this connection that will turn each citizen from a passive recipient of information into an active agent of digital security, contributing to the creation of a solid “community shield” against increasingly complex threats in cyberspace.

Three pillars of creating a safe digital community

Building a digitally safe community can be envisioned as a three-tier ecosystem, in which family, school and society play complementary roles and interact closely with each other. First of all, the family is the place where the formation of basic habits and values originates. When parents accompany their children in using the Internet, children not only learn simple security skills such as setting strong passwords or being wary of strange links, but also acquire defensive thinking and a sense of digital responsibility. This is the first step in making online safety a daily habit instead of a discrete skill.

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Next, schools play a spreading role at the collective education level. Integrating digital skills into the curriculum, considering it a “digital citizenship competency” alongside math, literature or foreign languages, will help students not only receive temporary knowledge but also be trained in a systematic roadmap. Through extracurricular activities, situational drills or discussions with experts, individual awareness is gradually consolidated into community competency, creating a generation of digital citizens who are both skilled and socially responsible.

At a broad, comprehensive level, society includes the media, mass organizations, management agencies and the online community... When the press regularly warns, social networks spread meaningful messages and mass organizations implement community education programs, digital safety will no longer be the sole responsibility of each individual, but will become a common social norm. This is the driving force for small safety behaviors to turn into collective habits and gradually form a sustainable digital safety culture.

In another approach, the three pillars (family, school, society) form a triangle of impact mechanisms of the digital safety community. When these three pillars operate synchronously, complement each other and interact closely, they will form a safe protection circle to help society effectively deal with increasingly complex threats in the digital age.

Lieutenant Colonel Phi Van Thanh

Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05), Ministry of Public Security

Source: https://nhandan.vn/ngan-chan-lua-dao-truc-tuyen-bang-ky-nang-so-co-ban-post906468.html