Raising awareness of child abuse in Vietnam through social network ...

Click, like, and share - Raising awareness of child abuse in Vietnam through social network sites

Paramaporn Thaichon, [email protected] Faculty of Business & Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Victoria 3122, Australia

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Thu Nguyen Quach, [email protected] Faculty of Business & Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Victoria 3122, Australia

-------------------------------------1 Thu Nguyen Quach is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Business & Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. Her research interests are in the areas of services marketing, marketing research, consumer behaviour and relationship marketing. T +61 3 92145266 E [email protected]

Proceedings of the International Social Marketing Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 17th to 18th July, 2014.

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Introduction Vietnam is a country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The population of Vietnam is approximately 90.3 million as of 2012, ranking 15th in the world (CIA, 2013). Rapid economic development and urbanisation have come with larger discrepancy between the rich and the poor, and heavier flow of people migrating from rural regions to urban areas to look for employment opportunities (Hossain, 2006). This leads to a rise in marital problems, crime frequencies and the loss of traditional values which has, in turn, resulted in higher number of abandoned, neglected, abused and exploited children (Hove, Ngwerume, & Muchemwa, 2013).

Child abuse in Vietnam Children are often the most vulnerable parts of a society with vast changes. The United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF (2014) reported that in 2010 more than 1,805 children were abused. A research indicates that violence against Vietnamese children tripled from 2005 to 2007 (Irin, 2013). Violence against children caused by teachers increased more than 10 times (Irin, 2013). Recently a dramatic rise in the number of cases where children in kindergartens were brutally ill-treated, and suffered severely physical and mental damage has been exposed (Vietnamnet, 2013). A study by Nguyen, Dunne, and Le (2009) reported that among children from 12 -18 years old, 41.6% of boys and 54% of girls were with lifetime prevalence of physical abuse. A 2010 study by UNICEF and the Ministry of Invalids and Social Affairs also found that approximately 15% of all female sex workers were under 18 years of age (UNICEF, 2014). This situation urges a need to raise public awareness and evoke calls for action to avoid the reappearance of such incidents. Attitudes to Child Abuse Culture was claimed to have an influence on levels of awareness towards child abuse (Ahn & Gilbert, 1992). For example, whereas parents need to learn to respect their children’s rights and privacy in United States (Ahn & Gilbert, 1992), in the Malaysian context, discipline is usually taught to children in the forms of physical punishment, embarrassing or scolding (Tajima, 2000). This is also related to Indian practices which believe that children must be instructed to follow orders (Iravani, 2011). Sharing similar values and beliefs with other Asian cultures, Vietnamese grown-ups usually think that treating children with violence is something normal (Zhai, & Gao 2009). A survey conducted by Vietnam’s Commission for Population, Family and Children in 2006 reported that 58.3% of children were shamed, hit or Proceedings of the International Social Marketing Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 17th to 18th July, 2014.

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slapped as a way of ensuring discipline or punishing their mistakes (GMFC, 2010). It is often overlooked even when an adult physically smacked a child (UNICEF 2014). The legal and social attention is only drawn when a child is seriously hurt and the adult is usually accused of social disorder, not child abuse. There is no widely accepted definition of "child abuse" in Vietnam (Map, 2011). The country also lacks social workers and specific laws against child maltreatment (ECPAT, 2010). Social network sites (SNSs) and their role in raising awareness Being more advantageous than the traditional media, SNSs have the power of engaging the public, quickly reaching the audience, and creating group influence (Thaichon, Quach & Lobo, 2013). Vietnam has 17 million social network users and this number is still growing significantly (Insights, 2014). In this specific paper, SNSs are considered as serving both primary level intervention (i.e. building public perception and attend to the social factors contributing to child maltreatment), and secondary level intervention (i.e. identifying child abuse issues) (ACG, 2009; Tomison & Poole, 2000). An AIDA model (i.e. Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) is adapted to the form of CLS model (i.e. Click, Like and Share) in the context of social network sites as an attempt to engage public with the idea of child abuse prevention (Figure 1).

It is important to determine the objectives of the communication strategies which can be classified depending on the model of the communication or process that is regarded as appropriate. Depending on the objective of the marketers, SNSs can be used to generate some knowledge on child maltreatment or evoke public awareness towards a specific case of child abuse so that essential action can be performed. The first step described by the AIDA model, is to draw the attention of the readers. On social networking sites, these messages appear as new feeds. The audiences only click on the link to see a full story and comments when they feel attracted. Secondly, in the AIDA model, the interest for the promoted message has to be provoked, and afterwards it is important to inspire the formation of a desire in the reader. In SNSs this is represented by liking which is considered as an emotional variable implying the audience’s sympathy and agreement (Zhong, Hardin, & Sun, 2011). The ultimate goal of AIDA is to inspire the readers to take action. Sharing is the desired action in making the words to go viral with a view to creating public perception on maltreating children.


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CLICK

ATTENTION

• Attract the attention of the public by stories, statistics and pictures related to child abuse and child protection.

INTEREST

• Raise public interest by concentrating on and illustrating advantages and benefits of the knowledge: to protect the children who are the future of the country. • Evoke the sympathy and compassion from network users who are also parenting or know other parents.

LIKE

SHARE

DESIRE

• Convince people that child abuse needs to be stopped for the benefits of their children as well as the whole society including their friends and families. Make them realise the old fashioned way of disciplining children by physical punishment is no longer suitable.

ACTION

• Knowledge gain, attitude change • Share thoughts by engaging the discussions (i.e. comments), which help to create group influence • Spread word of mouth by sharing the stories/pictures • Put into actual action of stopping child abuse

Figure 1: Click, Like and Share model

Conclusion Although child abuse has become a serious problem, Vietnam has traditionally overlooked this matter, which requires more action taken in order to deal with this issue. Social networks are effective tools to create public awareness towards child maltreatment. CLS model as an adapted version of AIDA in SNSs, targets more on motivating online word-of-mouth which has become a significant complement to social and consumption behaviour (Brown, Broderick, & Lee, 2007). CLS-AIDA model is important in designing communication strategies as it enables social marketers to identify whether the objective is to draw to attention, cultivate interest, stimulate desire or provoke action. The use of SNSs can result in greater awareness, more knowledge and changed attitudes of the target audience.


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References ACG. (2009). Inverting the pyramid: Enhancing systems for protecting children. Melbourne: Allen Consulting Group: Australian Research Alliance for Children & Youth Ahn, H. N., & Gilbert, N. (1992). Cultural diversity and sexual abuse prevention. The Social Service Review, 410-427. Brown, J., Broderick, A. J., & Lee, N. (2007). Word of mouth communication within online communities: Conceptualizing the online social network. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21(3), 2-20. CIA. (2013). The world factbook. Retrieved 1st August, 2013, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html ECPAC. 2010, Country Monitoring Report – Vietnam, ECPAC. Retrieved 15/02/2014, from http://www.ecpat.net/sites/default/files/exsum_a4a_eap_vietnam.pdf GMFC. (2010). VIETNAM: Reports of Child Abuse a Wake-up Call for Parents. Retrieved 17/12/2013, from http://www.gmfc.org/en/action-within-the-movement/asia-a-thepacific/regional-news-in-asia-a-the-pacific/203-vietnam-reports-of-child-abuse-awake-up-call-for-parents Hossain, S. (2006). Rapid mass urbanization and its social consequences in Bangladesh: the case of the Megacity of Dhaka. Paper presented at the In 16th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia Wollongong, Australia. Hove, M., Ngwerume, E. T., & Muchemwa, C. (2013). The Urban Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Threat to Human Security and Sustainable Development. Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, 2(1). Insights, D. (2014). Infographic: Asia-Pacific Social Media Statistics. Retrieved 17/1/2014, from http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-asia-pacific-social-media-statisticsstats-facts/ Iravani, R. (2011). Child Abuse in India. Journal of Asian Social Science, 7(3), 150-153. Irin. (2013). VIETNAM: Dramatic rise in child abuse cases. Retrieved 17/12/2013, from http://www.irinnews.org/report/80059/vietnam-dramatic-rise-in-child-abuse-cases Nguyen, H. T., Dunne, M. P., & Le, A. V. (2009). Multiple types of child maltreatment and adolescent mental health in Viet Nam. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 87, 22-30. Mapp, C. (2011). Global child welfare and well-being. Oxford University Press.Tajima, E. A. (2000). The Relative importance of Wife Abuse As A Risk Factor For Molence Against Children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24(11), 1383-1398. Thaichon, P., Quach, T. N. & Lobo, A. (2013). Marketing communications: factors influencing brand loyalty of internet service providers. Proceedings of the 2013 Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (ANZMAC). Auckland, New Zealand, 1st to 4th December, 2013. Tomison, A., & Poole, L. (2000). Preventing child abuse and neglect: Findings from an Australian audit of prevention programs. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. UNICEF. (2014). Children protection. Retrieved 17/12/2013, from http://www.unicef.org/vietnam/protection.html Vietnamnet. (2013). More child abuse cases discovered, no solution found. Retrieved 17/12/2013 Zhong, B., Hardin, M., & Sun, T. (2011). Less effortful thinking leads to more social networking? The associations between the use of social network sites and personality traits. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(3), 1265-1271.


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