Facebook, in collaboration with the Management and Sustainable Development Institute (MSD), officially launched “Think Before You Share,” an online safety programme, in Viet Nam on Tuesday.

MSD is a Vietnamese non-government organisation that acts for the rights of marginalised groups, especially children and youth.

Through a series of workshops, training sessions and online resources, “Think Before You Share” will provide the youth with tools and guidelines on sharing information safely and responsibly on social media.

“Keeping our community safe is core to everything we do, and we want to help youth in Viet Nam make better decisions about what they share online. With ‘Think Before You Share,’ Vietnamese youth will have the tools they need to do just that. We are committed to working with local partners to reach more youth across Viet Nam and build a positive online community,” said Clair Deevy, director of Community Affairs, APAC at Facebook.

Executive Director of MSD, Nguyen Phuong Linh, said that “The Think Before You Share” programme was an important part of her work to support the online safety of young people and ensure they have the right skills to contribute to creating positive online communities.

“The programme has been designed to help students analyse content on social media and use their own critical thinking and empathy to understand how it informs their opinion. We want to empower students as digital citizens to use social media safely, smartly and create a positive social media experience,” Linh added.

Facebook and MSD kick-started the campaign with a two-day summit, which will be attended by more than 100 Vietnamese NGO participants from 15 provinces and cities nationwide. The summit will provide NGOs with tools and practical skills to enhance their efforts in building a secure and useful network environment, create a positive online presence and promote responsible digital citizenship. Through design thinking, critical thinking and empathy, NGOs will create social campaigns that promote better and safer online communities.

Besides workshops and training sessions, the initiative will also make online resources and videos available, covering digital literacy, online safety, critical thinking and empathy. As part of this programme, these resources will continue to be shared by Facebook and its partners in more than 100 schools across Viet Nam.

The programme, which will visit 15 cities and provinces across Viet Nam, seeks to train approximately 30,000 youth aged between 13 and 18 years old, as well as 1,500 teachers, 100 NGOs, and more than 40 youth trainers. In addition, the initiative aims to reach more than 250,000 youth in Viet Nam online. — VNS