Research on ideological and political education of adolescents from the perspective of cybersecurity

Without cybersecurity, there is no national security. In the era of “Internet +”, cybersecurity issues are directly linked to the safety of a country’s ideology. As the nation with the largest adolescent netizen population in the world, China has seen the Internet become the primary tool for young people to study, socialize and entertain themselves. Yet hostile forces at home and abroad, negative cyber opinion, harmful online culture and the communication patterns of new media all pose serious challenges to ideological and political education for Chinese adolescents. This paper analyzes the major problems in such education under the perspective of cybersecurity and offers corresponding countermeasures: improving adolescents’ network literacy, strengthening the construction of mainstream media favored by young people, expanding the ranks of cyber commentators and volunteers, cultivating specialized online ideological-political workers, effectively supervising new media, perfecting relevant laws, improving cyber-governance institutions, and building an international cooperative system for Internet governance. The aim is to inspire practical activities of adolescent ideological and political education and to safeguard the healthy growth of young people.