QUOTE(Du Van Nga)
At midnight, the streets of Ha Noi are dark and desolate, the commotion of motors and horns finally silenced. An internet cafe on Nui Truc Street, however, is still abuzz with the furious clacking of keyboards and sporadic beeps of messages being sent and received.
I was seated among the late-night chatters, trying to get to the bottom of the packed nighttime chatrooms. Some of the night owls were merely rebellious teenagers disregarding curfews to gossip with friends. Others, however, had crossed into more dangerous territory, becoming involved in the ‘cuu (rescue) net’, a growing trend that lends itself to more hardship than help.
It seems innocent at first: a teenage girl finds herself unable to pay the bill for hours or perhaps days of chatting and snacks at an internet cafe. She tells the new ‘friend’ she’s chatting with about her sticky situation, and he offers to come and bail her out. Afterwards, he says, they’ll go for a drink or to dance at a club.
Those who have experience with the ‘rescue net’ know exactly what their ‘rescuers’ will expect in return. Others, though, are caught unaware and pay a steep price for their ignorance.
One such victim was Dao Thi Man’s 16-year-old daughter, who suffered a gang rape when the man she’d been chatting with brought friends when he came to help her with her internet bill.
"I had thought the boy was kind," Man’s daughter said. "Since the incident, I’ve felt so dirty and emotionally unstable."
Man blames the internet for the tragedy that befell her daughter, who had always been an obedient daughter and stellar high school student.
"I hate the internet; it’s like a poison," Man told me, her voice crackling with anger. "It corrupted my daughter."
Since Man had stopped monitoring her daughter’s activities when she became absorbed in trading stocks, she was dumbfounded to hear that her daughter had been going out late at night.
"I go wherever I want, whenever I want," her daughter said. "Sometimes I feel like I’m just a burden to my parents, a superfluous daughter. I wonder if I should just get out of their sight, if they would even care."
Man’s daughter sought companionship in a group of other 16-year-olds who felt isolated from their families and spent their nights chatting in internet cafes. Lai Kim Hong, another member of the group, explains that loneliness pushed her to seek out human connection through the internet.
"I felt like a fish out of water with my family," she said. "When I chatted online, many boys sympathised and made me feel happier and more self-confident. I felt like I needed them more than my relatives."
Once the chatting escalates and the pair arranges a meeting, however, the situation can quickly change from comforting to frightening.
For the men, the prices paid for these sexual acts – consensual or otherwise – are minimal, often nothing more than covering a girl’s bill racked up from a few nights at an internet cafe. Nguyen Van Cong, a sweet-faced heroin addict who frequents internet cafes in the Truong Dinh area at night, says courting girls through the internet involves little effort or expenditure, usually less than VND100,000.
For Nguyen Minh Khai, a seasoned chatter, the appeal of the ‘rescue net’ isn’t the low price but the thrill of the pursuit and the encounter.
"Someone asked me, ‘Have you ever thought about the consequences brought on the young girls from your actions? Do you really love them?’ " Khai said. "Really I don’t care what they think and do in the future. I just solve their money troubles and then I am compensated with consensual sex."
Khai reveals that he was once a victim of the system, when a girl invited him to stay over in a cheap guest house after he paid her debts at several internet cafes. He awoke the next morning to find the girl had vanished with his wallet containing about VND1 million.
"Fortunately, the guard didn’t let her take my motorbike too," he said. "I couldn’t believe I was cheated by a young girl with such an innocent face! I learned a bitter lesson from her trick."
Khai’s story highlights the other side of the ‘rescue net’: the girls with screen personas like lack – of – money – girl, pinknight1986 and love-u-one-night who consider their internet chats a method of prostitution or even set traps for unsuspecting clients.
The internet has become a vital resource for connecting people and information – but parents should be aware of the kinds of information and people to which their children have access. — VNS
I was seated among the late-night chatters, trying to get to the bottom of the packed nighttime chatrooms. Some of the night owls were merely rebellious teenagers disregarding curfews to gossip with friends. Others, however, had crossed into more dangerous territory, becoming involved in the ‘cuu (rescue) net’, a growing trend that lends itself to more hardship than help.
It seems innocent at first: a teenage girl finds herself unable to pay the bill for hours or perhaps days of chatting and snacks at an internet cafe. She tells the new ‘friend’ she’s chatting with about her sticky situation, and he offers to come and bail her out. Afterwards, he says, they’ll go for a drink or to dance at a club.
Those who have experience with the ‘rescue net’ know exactly what their ‘rescuers’ will expect in return. Others, though, are caught unaware and pay a steep price for their ignorance.
One such victim was Dao Thi Man’s 16-year-old daughter, who suffered a gang rape when the man she’d been chatting with brought friends when he came to help her with her internet bill.
"I had thought the boy was kind," Man’s daughter said. "Since the incident, I’ve felt so dirty and emotionally unstable."
Man blames the internet for the tragedy that befell her daughter, who had always been an obedient daughter and stellar high school student.
"I hate the internet; it’s like a poison," Man told me, her voice crackling with anger. "It corrupted my daughter."
Since Man had stopped monitoring her daughter’s activities when she became absorbed in trading stocks, she was dumbfounded to hear that her daughter had been going out late at night.
"I go wherever I want, whenever I want," her daughter said. "Sometimes I feel like I’m just a burden to my parents, a superfluous daughter. I wonder if I should just get out of their sight, if they would even care."
Man’s daughter sought companionship in a group of other 16-year-olds who felt isolated from their families and spent their nights chatting in internet cafes. Lai Kim Hong, another member of the group, explains that loneliness pushed her to seek out human connection through the internet.
"I felt like a fish out of water with my family," she said. "When I chatted online, many boys sympathised and made me feel happier and more self-confident. I felt like I needed them more than my relatives."
Once the chatting escalates and the pair arranges a meeting, however, the situation can quickly change from comforting to frightening.
For the men, the prices paid for these sexual acts – consensual or otherwise – are minimal, often nothing more than covering a girl’s bill racked up from a few nights at an internet cafe. Nguyen Van Cong, a sweet-faced heroin addict who frequents internet cafes in the Truong Dinh area at night, says courting girls through the internet involves little effort or expenditure, usually less than VND100,000.
For Nguyen Minh Khai, a seasoned chatter, the appeal of the ‘rescue net’ isn’t the low price but the thrill of the pursuit and the encounter.
"Someone asked me, ‘Have you ever thought about the consequences brought on the young girls from your actions? Do you really love them?’ " Khai said. "Really I don’t care what they think and do in the future. I just solve their money troubles and then I am compensated with consensual sex."
Khai reveals that he was once a victim of the system, when a girl invited him to stay over in a cheap guest house after he paid her debts at several internet cafes. He awoke the next morning to find the girl had vanished with his wallet containing about VND1 million.
"Fortunately, the guard didn’t let her take my motorbike too," he said. "I couldn’t believe I was cheated by a young girl with such an innocent face! I learned a bitter lesson from her trick."
Khai’s story highlights the other side of the ‘rescue net’: the girls with screen personas like lack – of – money – girl, pinknight1986 and love-u-one-night who consider their internet chats a method of prostitution or even set traps for unsuspecting clients.
The internet has become a vital resource for connecting people and information – but parents should be aware of the kinds of information and people to which their children have access. — VNS