VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW ----------------------------------------------- GRADUATION THESIS CIVIL LAW DEPARTMENT Topic: CIVIL RIGHTS OF MINORS INFRINGED IN CYBERSPACE Supervisor: Doctor Ngô Thanh Hương Full name: Lê Thị Mai Hương Student code: 18062019 Class: K63 Honors Program Hanoi - 2022 LETTER OF DECLARATION I hereby declare that the Graduation thesis “Civil Rights of Minors Infringed in Cyberspace” is the result of my own honest research under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Ngo Thanh Huong. All references presented in this thesis are for analysis, comments, and evaluations from various resources have been clearly cited in the reference part according to regulations. I take full responsibility for the fidelity of the number and data and other contents of my graduation project.
Hanoi, 20th, May 2022 Le Thi Mai Huong TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ABOUT THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF MINORS INFRINGED IN CYBERSPACE. Some basic concepts. The concept of minors’ civil rights.
The concept of cyberspace. Classification of minors’ civil rights in cyberspace. Typical infringing acts on the minors’ civil rights in cyberspace. The relationship between the minors’ civil rights in cyberspace and Internet freedoms.
The laws of some countries on the minors’ civil rights infringed in cyberspace. 25 LEGAL REALITY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF MINORS INFRINGED IN CYBERSPACE IN VIETNAM. The provisions of Vietnamese law on the civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace. The right of an minors over his/her image.
The right to protection of honour, dignity and reputation. The right to private life and personal and family secrets. Practice of implementation of the law on minors’ civil rights infringed on cyberspace. An overview of the infringement of minors’ civil rights in cyberspace in Vietnam.
Limitations and causes of limitations in the implementation of the law on minors’ civil rights infringed in cyberspace. 40 COMPLETING VIETNAMESE LAW ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF MINORS INFRINGED IN CYBERSPACE. Some legislative solutions. Other solutions to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of Vietnamese law on minors’ civil rights infringed on cyberspace.
47 1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Explanation CRC Convention on the Right of the Child EU European Union ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2 INTRODUCTION 1. The urgency of the subject Vietnam is one of the 20 countries with the highest number of Internet users globally. According to We Are Social’s Digital 2021 Report on Internet use in Vietnam, by early 2021, Vietnam’s population had reached more than 97 million people and contained 68.72 million internet users, accounting for more than 70% of the population. Users access the Internet through mobile devices, up to 94.3% of the total number of Internet users.
Users in Vietnam spend an average of 6 hours 47 minutes per day accessing the Internet, of which 2 hours 40 minutes are spent watching TV and streaming, 2 hours 21 minutes are spent on social networks, 1 hour 57 minutes reading newspapers and other activities.1 Vietnamese children and young people have early access to new information and communication technologies. The Vietnam NetCitizens Report 2011 on Internet usage and development speed showed that 95% of Vietnamese Internet users are aged 15-24.2 This report also shows that the percentages of websites that are used mainly by this group of people include: Google (60%), Zing (32%), Yahoo (34%), Facebook (13%). Although there have been many changes so far and there are no specific statistics on the percentage of children and young people using the Internet, students must learn online within the past two years due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Hence, it is believed that the number of minors accessing the Internet at an early age has increased dramatically.
Minors are leading the way in approaching information and communication technology in Vietnam, and it will create conditions for them to increase personal development. However, it also means they will have many negative experiences in cyberspace, including having their civil rights violated. With the above real situation, it is believed that the law on the civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace always plays a vital role in ensuring their safety. Although the provisions of Vietnamese civil law have made positive changes, they still face many challenges because of the rapid development of the Internet and the variety of violations of civil rights in Vietnam.
It is for this reason that I chose the topic: 1 We Are Social, Hootsuite (2021), Digital 2021 Vietnam, Datareportal https://datareportal.com/reports/digital- 2021-vietnam 2 Cimigo (2011), the Vietnam NetCitizens Report 2011, https://www.com/vi/research-reports/vietnam- netcitizens-report-2011-vietnamese/ 3 “Civil Rights of Minors Infringed in Cyberspace” to carry out the graduation thesis, so that I can have an overview of the theory, practice and limitations of the law on this issue, at the same time provide recommendations to complete the law. The research situation Through the research process, I realized that the topic related to child protection in cyberspace is not new, and much research was done years ago. However, recently, due to the rapid development of information and communication technology, and the use of the Internet among young people has increased significantly, the topic has received more and more attention. However, specific research on the civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace is still limited.
Some related research works can be mentioned as follows: About monographs First of all, “Giáo trình Lý luận và Pháp luật về quyền con người” by Prof. Nguyen Dang Dung et al. (2015), Hanoi, National Political Publishing House. The textbook has shown basic knowledge about human rights and civil rights in particular.
Based on that, I have theoretical knowledge to know what are civil rights. “Phạm vi và giới hạn của tự do Internet” by Assoc. Nguyen Thi Que Anh and Assoc. Vu Cong Giao (2018), Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University, is a collection of articles on many freedom issues on the Internet such as limitation, monitoring of freedom of expression, the role of the State’s management, the situation of exceeding the limit of free speech – hate speech, international law and reference to Vietnam, etc.
It provides readers with theoretical and practical knowledge to understand freedom in cyberspace in Vietnam and other countries. Especially articles on freedom of expression and the rights to privacy and protection of personal data such as: “Internet với tự do biểu đạt và quyền bảo vệ dữ liệu cá nhân trong pháp luật Cộng hòa Pháp” of Assoc. Nguyen Hoang Anh, Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University, “Cân bằng quyền tự do biểu đạt và quyền riêng tư trong môi trường Internet: Bình luận một số bản án của Tòa án Nhân quyền và Tòa án công lý châu Âu” of Dr. Do Giang Nam, Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University has shown the interaction between these rights to understand the necessity of limiting them.
Besides, it is impossible not to mention the “Quyền về sự riêng tư” of Assoc. Nguyen Thi Que Anh et al.(2018), Faculty of Law - Hanoi National 4 University. This is also a collection of articles to help readers understand the history, theory, legal and practice of privacy in Vietnam and some countries around the world, which are closely related to the topic. Especially the article on “Quyền riêng tư của trẻ em trong không gian Internet tại Việt Nam” by Dr.
Ngo Minh Huong and Nguyen Dinh Duc, Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University, have provided me with knowledge related to the group of minors who are children in cyberspace such as contents, the scope of privacy of children, sanctions for violations of privacy on the Internet, or experience from the European Union on protecting children’s privacy. Through these above monographs, I could grasp theoretical and practical knowledge about freedom in cyberspace and the privacy rights of minors. Then, I can inherit to write my thesis. About other works Specific research related to minor’s civil rights violated in cyberspace includes the following works.
“Chế tài đối với hành vi xâm phạm danh dự, nhân phẩm, uy tín của cá nhân theo pháp luật dân sự ở Việt Nam” by Pham Minh Chau (2020), Master of Law thesis, Faculty of Law - National University Hanoi or “Quyền được bảo vệ bí mật thông tin cá nhân ở Việt Nam hiện nay” by Pham Thi Hau (2017), Master's thesis in jurisprudence, Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University; etc. They show the theoretical basis of rights such as the right to protect the honour, dignity and reputation of individuals; the right to privacy of personal information; provisions of Vietnamese law and international law; infringing acts and obstacles in applying relevant legal provisions. In addition, some research works related to the group of minors who are children, such as: “Bảo vệ trẻ em trên không gian mạng” by Pham Thanh An et al. (2020), Hanoi Law University has shown a complete and general definition of child protection in cyberspace from different angles, dived into the legal solutions and practical solutions recommended for exact circumstances.
“Pháp luật về bảo vệ trẻ em trên không gian mạng” by Luong Dieu Thu et al. (2021), Vietnam Court Academy has also systematized and clarified the theoretical basis of Vietnamese law on protecting children in cyberspace; formulating concepts, contents, forms and conditions to ensure the application of the law; at the same time, 5 comprehensively analyze and evaluate the reality of implementation of the law on child protection in Vietnam, etc. Both of these studies have mainly provided many solutions to improve the law related to minors’ civil rights that I can inherit and promote them to become effective new ideas for this topic. The research aims and tasks 3.
Research aims The thesis clarifies the theoretical basis and reality of the infringing civil rights of minors in cyberspace. Then, the thesis gives viewpoints and recommendations to complete the law on the civil rights of minors in cyberspace. Research tasks The thesis needs to perform the following tasks to achieve the research aims: - Representing the theoretical basis such as the concepts of juveniles, cyberspace, and civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace; - Analyzing the provisions of Vietnamese law, the real situation, limitations and causes of the civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace; - Proposing several solutions to complete Vietnamese law on civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace. Object and scope of the research 4.
Research object The research object of the thesis is civil rights; specifically, the moral rights of minors are infringed in cyberspace. Research scope The thesis is mainly researched in the field of civil law. In addition, the thesis also researched and exploited a sufficient range of other relevant legal documents, international treaties and laws of some countries around the world. Research methodology The thesis was carried out based on the dialectical materialistic method of Marxism - Leninism and the theory of moral rights.
In addition, I use social science research methods such as analysis - synthesis, comparison, and use of data to perform the research tasks set out. The theoretical and practical significance of the research 6 - Theoretical significance: this thesis helps readers understand the theoretical knowledge of the law related to the minor’s civil rights infringed in cyberspace, and solutions to reduce limitations and complete the legal system. - Practical significance: the thesis helped grasp the practical application of current legal provisions to see the progress, limitations, shortcomings and their causes. Then, it proposed a number of solutions to complete the law and improve the law implementation on the civil rights of minors infringed in cyberspace.