Vietnam proposes ban on under-16s posting on social media

Vietnam's government is proposing a ban on social media posting and commenting for users under the age of 16, aiming to enhance online child protection. The proposal, disclosed by Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, deputy director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, at a consultation conference in Hanoi on July 23, mandates that accounts belonging to minors must be registered using a parent's or guardian's information. The supervising adult would then be responsible for monitoring the content the child accesses and the time spent on the platform. "A child's account, under the supervision of parents or guardians, can only view content. It cannot post, interact, comment or share," Huyen stated. Under the proposed regulations, children's accounts would default to the highest privacy settings. Platforms would be required to proactively block harmful content and deploy automated age-detection systems. They would also need to cooperate with authorities on reporting mechanisms and relay urgent information upon detecting online child abuse. However, major social media platforms like Meta and TikTok have expressed reservations. Nguyen Lam Thanh, head of TikTok Vietnam, acknowledged the necessity of stronger child protection but suggested reconsidering a blanket ban on interaction. He argued that given the pervasive social media features in most apps, prohibiting under-16s from posting, commenting, and sharing could effectively shut them out of the internet. This could also contradict the government's own initiatives to help children interact safely and creatively online. Meta's public policy director for Vietnam, Nguyen Thu Thao, explained that platforms identify potential child accounts through behavioral patterns and AI-driven age estimation. She warned that if children only passively consume content, platforms would lose the behavioral signals needed to identify them as minors, weakening detection and protection measures. Furthermore, the rule would strip parents of their discretion in deciding how their children use social media. Bui Thi Viet Lam, the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council's representative in Vietnam, highlighted the weakness of self-declared birth dates at signup, which children often inflate. She noted that platforms compensate by analyzing behavior, flagging accounts that engage with teenage or adult content. A ban, she argued, would remove these signals and push more children to misstate their age, rendering child-specific protections ineffective. She advocated for content controls, privacy protections, limits on contact with strangers, screen time management, and parental monitoring tools as more effective, age- and risk-based approaches used in other countries. Le Quang Tu Do, who heads the authority, cited two primary risks that led to the proposal: offensive comments damaging a child's perception and emotional state, and exposure to online fraud. The drafting board will consider the feedback and explore adding a data field to identify child accounts at the moment of parental registration, ensuring content controls and protections apply from the outset. The draft also includes restrictions on online gaming for minors. Game operators would need to verify ages, register under-16 accounts through a parent or guardian, and cap play time for this age group at 60 minutes per day across all games from a single company. Vietnam's proposed measures align with a growing global trend. France recently approved a ban on social media for children under 15, the EU's first blanket ban, and Australia was among the first countries to bar under-16s. The draft is not yet finalized and may undergo changes before adoption.