ASEAN Beat | Society | Southeast Asia

Vietnam Planning Social Media Restrictions for Children Under 16

The proposed rules would would bar minors from posting, sharing, or commenting on social media platforms.

Vietnam is set to order social media platforms to limit the access of children under 16 to social media, becoming the latest nation and the third in Southeast Asia to tighten online safety provisions for minors.

According to a draft amendment to a decree on internet management, the new rules would bar children under the age of 16 from posting, commenting, sharing, or reacting on social media, leaving them able only to view content, Vietnamese state media reported on Friday.

At a meeting to discuss the new rules the day prior, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, deputy director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, said that accounts belonging to under-16s would have to be registered using a parent’s or guardian’s information. That adult “would then be responsible for supervising the content the child sees and the time they spend on the platform,” the report stated.

“A child’s account, under the supervision of parents or guardians, can only view content. It cannot post, interact, comment, or share,” Huyen said.

At the same time, social media companies will also be tasked with identifying child users and ensure that they are exposed only to age-appropriate content, Reuters reported, citing copy of the draft amendment.

Unlike in Australia, which introduced the world’s first social media ban for under 16s last year, the measures will stop short of a full prohibition.

“The primary objective is not to ban or excessively restrict children’s access ​to social media, but rather to ensure that when children use social media services, they are placed in an age-appropriate environment and protected from inappropriate risks,” Deputy Culture Minister Phan Tam said ​at Thursday’s meeting.

The measures align Vietnam with a growing effort to restrict minors’ access to social media platforms, in the interests of protecting them from cyberbullying, online fraud, and exposure to pornography, among other perceived threats. The draft decree also proposes new ​restrictions on ⁠online gaming, according to Reuters. These would require game operators to verify users’ ages, register under-16 accounts through a parent or guardian, and limit children ⁠to no more than 60 minutes........

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