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Praying to haunted dolls

Youtuber Tho Nguyen.

A wave of ire was aroused when YouTuber Tho Nguyen uploaded on her channel with nearly 900,000 subscribers a clip in which she was beseeching a doll Kumanthong (a ‘fetish’ in Thailand) to grant luck to students whose exams were coming close.

Embracing the doll, she said “my child! It’s their big day, please bless them and give them success in the exams. Show mommy your approval by shaking back and forth, if you don’t mommy will slap your bottom!” She was swinging a chain in front of the doll’s face as she spoke.

After the outrage that it caused, Tho Nguyen claimed it was misunderstood, but it failed to quell the public vexation.

Eating washing powder, drinking shower gel

Two YouTubers from channel “Toy Planet” commonly post video series entitled “Eating cactus”, “drinking dishwashing liquid”, “Eating soap, drinking shower gel”.

These misleading titles sparked widespread frustration.

Particularly, in video “Counterfeiting the soap with chocolate”, the two YouTubers used fake soap and shower gel with milk and white chocolate. One ate soap and shower gel (made from milk and chocolate) in front of his friend, while the other held real soap and shower gel and pretended to eat.

The content was criticized for misguiding children. The two Youtubers then posted a video of apology, adding that, “Our videos are aimed at children over 13 years old who are mature enough to discern the content and not imitate the titles or images included.”

This explanation was considered just an excuse since the channel previously set no age limit for their audience.

Dropping 100 knifes from above

A “Drop 100 knives on high” clip was shown on November 2019 on YouTube channel NTN Vlogs by YouTuber Nguyen Thanh Nam.

A bundle of 87 small knives was dropped from a terrace targeting pork on a thin sponge. The vlogger also created similar content with the knife aimed at a watermelon and a soft drink bottle.

These videos were opposed by the cyber community as their content can lead to dangerous or illegal activities causing serious physical harm or death. Despite age-restricted content policy implemented by NTN vlogs, there is no complete assurance they will be discovered only by appropriate audiences.

Repercussions

Many youngsters have been misguided by these instructions on YouTube videos and have endangered their lives.

In January 2020, after using explosives to make firecrackers, a 15-year-old from Hai Duong was hospitalized in a state of multiple injuries: crushed right forearm, left forearm wound, wrist tendon rupture and other soft tissue injuries on the leg sides.

The patient had followed an instruction from YouTube on how to make firecrackers and bought explosives and sulfur for the process, which did not end well.

In October 2020, the death of a 5 years old girl was a huge shock. At the time of the incident, she had just finished watching an online video tutorial on hanging which incited her to do something similar with a chiffon scarf. Regrettably, the girl was only discovered after she had turned pale and died.

Likewise, in November 2019, a 7-year-old boy from HCMC was found bruised by a scarf after mimicking the video “hanging but still breathing” on YouTube. He luckily was rescued in time.

When asked, the boy said he had many times watched the game ‘risen from the death’ on YouTube in which the character shows how to strangle but still continue breathing without dying, so he did the same.

It is time to do something about the inappropriate material on YouTube that is easily accessible to kids. Young minds are curious and eager to learn, yet at the same time prone to toxic content that seems engrossing at first blush.

Le Phuong

A view of Ha Long Bay. Photos: VNA

The creative YouTubers have acted as online “tour guides” providing viewers with insights into the beauty of Vietnamese culture, food, and people and the country’s natural landscapes after trips to various destinations.

The owner of the Cheri Hyeri channel is Kim Hyeri, 27, a graduate of the Vietnamese language Department at the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s University of Foreign Studies. Her channel currently has 1.1 million subscribers. With an affection for Vietnam, she set up the channel to introduce Vietnamese culture and tourism, the Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Kim said she misses and hopes to return to Vietnam as it is a beautiful and welcoming country. Her videos on Vietnamese tourism, culture, and people have garnered huge attention from young people not only in the Republic of Korea but also from many other countries around the world.

Vietnam Meets Dustin has become familiar to avid travellers in recent years. The channel has more than 600,000 likes and features the rustic life of Vietnamese people. Its owner is Dustin Cheverier, 33, from California.

Falling in love with Vietnam’s countryside, Dustin has been promoting the country for more than four years. In his videos, he said that when he arrived in Vietnam for the first time he was blown away by its stunning and serene beauty. The countryside made a strong impression on him and become an endless source of inspiration for his videos.

Vietnamese “banh mi”.

Cee Jay, meanwhile, actually lives in Vietnam. His videos on food and travel in the country have caught the attention of many netizens. Vietnam captures the hearts of many visitors, he said, and he considers it his second home.

According to Statista, a channel specialising in providing information on social networks, YouTube is the world’s second-largest social media platform, with about 2 billion users each month, and has become an important source of information for nearly 60 percent of travellers globally when seeking travel inspiration, choosing destinations, and sharing experiences.

Vietnam currently ranks fourth in the world in terms of time on YouTube and is one of the five largest markets of the social media platform.

Many young YouTubers have chosen to make videos introducing tourist attractions in Vietnam. Apart from foreign YouTubers, young Vietnamese who are avid travellers also contribute to promoting their homeland through emotional videos.

“Besides exploring, I would like to convey my positive energy with young people and share the experience of travel,” said Le Truong Huy (nicknamed Huy Hay Di), a famous travel blogger.

Beyond introducing their own experiences, the foreign YouTubers have helped promote Vietnamese tourism to foreign friends and tourists.

VNA

Ryan Kaji was once again found in the list of YouTube’s highest income earners in 2020 released by Forbes, with an estimated income of $29.5 million.

The boy, whose father is Japanese and mother is Vietnamese, is the owner of Ryan’s World channel with 29 million subscribers and 46 billion views since 2015.

Vietnam also has a rich YouTuber. Nguyen Thi Hong Tho, the owner of Tho Nguyen channel established in 2016, had 8.74 million subs and 8.2 billion views by the time she was called by the Binh Duong provincial Department of Information and Communications because of “anti-education” clip.

The common characteristic of both YouTubers is that they produce content for children and are famous in countries where they live.

In Vietnam, the boycotting of Tho Nguyen has increased, while Ryan’s family is also facing criticism because both earn money taking advantage of children’s innocence.

Who is Tho Nguyen?

Her real name is Nguyen Hong Tho. She was born in 1992, and lives and works in Binh Duong. She graduated from the HCM City University of Law and was in the fashion business before becoming a YouTuber.

In 2016, Tho and her boyfriend, Tieu Bao Bao (not his real name) established a YouTube channel called Tho Nguyen with content targeting children.

In 2017, Tho Nguyen became famous after posting a clip showing her groaning in a giant jelly bathtub. The channel began attracting children thanks to its diverse content like cooking, toy box opening and challenges not suited to children.

Later, Tho Nguyen had to block comments or hide video clips which faced fierce criticism, such as videos on trying to boil a soft drink can or putting dry ice into a closed bottle.

As videos about challenges are now in fashion, Tho Nguyen published a lot of clips of this kind, saying they were ‘nonsensical’ (for example, staying for 24 hours in a dumping ground; guessing objects by smelling while blindfolded – she ‘tasted’ boyfriend’s feet with her tongue).

Developing content on YouTube has proven to be very profitable for young creators, from a 29-year-old Vietnamese girl to a 9-year-old boy from Texas.

In a clip posted on February 27, Tho Nguyen said that she made a video using a doll to “ask for good study”, which reminded people of Kumanthong doll.

Tho Nguyen team then posted the clip on Facebook and faced criticism from parents. She then apologized to the audience after the clip became a hot topic on local newspapers and management agencies criticized her.

The Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) asked the Binh Duong Department of Information and Communications to work with Tho Nguyen on the issue, stating that if Tho Nguyen was still uncooperative with management agencies.

After the working session with the agency, she was fined VND7.5 million for the act of providing and sharing information and promoting superstitious beliefs.

Meanwhile, Thuan An City’s taxation agency reported that Tho Nguyen has paid personal income tax of VND2 billion on revenue of VND28.5 billion from content for children on YouTube.

Tho Nguyen, under public pressure, has hidden all videos, turned off monetization on YouTube, and has stated she will stop making videos. She also did the same on her Tik Tok channel.

Tip of the iceberg

The years before 2020 witnessed the boom of YouTube channels for children. One of them was Spiderman Elsa which provided clips with vulgar content for children. The channel didn’t have content in Vietnamese, but surprisingly was owned by a Vietnamese and belonged to Vietnam multi-channel network.

Because of criticism, YouTube has set up stricter requirements to tighten control over channels for children.

However, analysts believe that Tho Nguyen and Ryan are just two ‘grains of sand’ out of the 50 million content producers on YouTube. And if some YouTubers have to stop making videos, other YouTubers will appear to provide content to more than 2 billion users.

“Parents need to look after their children regularly and remind them of what they can watch and what they must not, because there are many ‘toxic’ channels on YouTube,” said Ngoc Linh, a mother with two children in Hanoi.

Phuong Nguyen

AFP