Nong Duc Tai
People’s Security Academy
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| Students in Tay Ninh province take part in Digital Citizenship Day, an event held by ICHI SKILL Technological Sciences Education JSC in coordination with local schools__Photo: VNA |
Introduction
The digital era has profoundly transformed every aspect of social life. In Vietnam, with more than 78.44 million internet users accounting for 79.1 per cent of the population, the proportion of children and adolescents accessing the internet daily has reached 77 per cent.
Social media offers children opportunities for learning, connection and personal development. However, it also exposes them to unprecedented risks, including cyberbullying, online fraud, sexual exploitation, exposure to violent and pornographic content and gaming addiction.
According to statistics from the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05) under the Ministry of Public Security, dozens of cases involving online scams, grooming, psychological manipulation and online abductions involving children were recorded in the first half of 2025 alone. Meanwhile, the national child protection hotline 111 has remained consistently overloaded, receiving hundreds of thousands of calls requiring intervention.
In response to this alarming situation, Vietnam has established a legal framework comprising the 2016 Law on Children, the 2018 Law on Cybersecurity, Government Decree 147/2024/ND-CP and the 2025 Law on Cybersecurity, which takes effect on July 1 this year.
These legal instruments have established initial supervisory mechanisms, including requirements for parents or guardians to register their children’s social media accounts and obligations imposed on digital platforms. However, the current approach remains focused largely on management and control rather than achieving effective preventive protection at the root level.
As cybercrime grows increasingly sophisticated, children can still easily circumvent existing regulations while many parents remain unable to monitor online activities around the clock. The key question is therefore no longer whether restrictions should be imposed, but how such restrictions can be designed in a way that both protects children and aligns with the Party’s and the State’s evolving legal reform agenda.
From a strategic policy perspective, Politburo Resolution 57-NQ/TW dated December 22, 2024, identifies the development of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation as the leading critical breakthrough. This orientation does not suggest abandoning necessary protective measures. Rather, it calls for smart, proactive and forward-looking solutions, particularly for vulnerable groups.
Politburo Resolution 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025, on reform of law-making and law enforcement further clarifies this direction by emphasising the need to decisively abandon the mindset that if something cannot be managed, it should be prohibited. However, this does not mean loosening regulations across all sectors.
In environments posing serious risks of harm, the adoption of strong preventive and restrictive measures is legally justifiable, provided they are grounded in scientific evidence, proportionate and aimed at safeguarding the best interests of vulnerable individuals.
In this context, restricting children under the age of 16 from using social media should not be viewed as a rigid prohibition, but rather as a special protective measure designed to restore a healthy developmental environment for children. This approach is consistent with the spirit of protecting vulnerable groups under Article 35 of the 2025 Law on Cybersecurity, which prioritises cybersecurity awareness and protective measures for children.
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| Students enthusiastically take part in STEM Day, an event aimed at improving digital skills and creative thinking for children__Photo: VNA |
International perspectives and comparative experiences
Global trends in protecting children in cyberspace
As concerns grow over the impact of social media on children’s mental health, personality development and safety, many countries have shifted their policy approach from simple management and supervision towards stronger preventive protections backed by law. A global survey found that 65 per cent of respondents supported banning children under the age of 14 from using social media, with the majority support recorded in 29 of the 30 countries surveyed (Brookings Institution, 2025).
This trend reflects a broader shift in public awareness: protecting children in the digital environment is no longer viewed solely as a family responsibility, but also as a duty of the State and technology companies.
The Australian experience as a pioneering model
Australia became the first country in the world to introduce a comprehensive legal ban on children’s use of social media. Under the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, which takes effect on December 10, 2025, children under the age of 16 are prohibited from creating or maintaining accounts on 10 major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Threads and Twitch.
A distinctive feature of the Australian model is that primary legal responsibility rests with digital platforms rather than children or parents. Technology companies are required to implement reasonable age-verification measures and non-compliance can result in fines of up to AUD 49.5 million, equivalent to around USD 33 million.
Initial implementation results indicate that approximately 4.7 million accounts were deactivated during the first half of December 2025. A YouGov survey found that 77 per cent of Australians supported the ban when it was introduced, while 61 per cent of parents with children under 16 reported positive effects, including increased face-to-face interaction and improved family relationships.
Nevertheless, implementation has also exposed significant challenges. More than 60 per cent of children aged between 12 and 15 reportedly attempted to circumvent the restrictions through VPN services or by borrowing accounts from relatives. This highlights that legal restrictions alone may be insufficient and must be complemented by educational initiatives and technological support measures.
Experiences from Indonesia and Europe
Following Australia’s approach, Indonesia officially implemented a ban on children under the age of 16 using social media on March 28, 2026, becoming the first Southeast Asian country to adopt such a measure. Indonesia classified YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Bigo Live and Roblox as high-risk platforms, affecting approximately 70 million children. Platforms that fail to comply may face monetary penalties, service suspensions or operational bans.
The policy was introduced against a backdrop in which 48 per cent of Indonesian children had experienced cyberbullying, while 74 per cent lacked adequate parental supervision online.
In Europe, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen stated: “The question is not whether children should have access to social media, but whether social media should have access to children.”
The European Union (EU) is currently developing an EU-wide age-verification application, which is expected to be launched by the end of 2026. Denmark and France are also expected to prohibit children under the age of 15 from using social media in 2026.
In the United Kingdom, regulations that took effect on July 25, 2025, require online platforms to implement robust age-verification measures, including facial scanning, national identity verification or credit card authentication. Violations may result in penalties of up to 10 per cent of a company’s global revenue or GBP18 million, whichever is higher.
Perspectives of international organisations and lessons for Vietnam
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) states that child protection in the digital environment should be built upon three pillars:
(i) Strengthening the responsibilities of digital platforms, including safety-by-design mechanisms and algorithmic transparency;
(ii) Regulating children’s access through balanced age-verification systems that respect privacy rights; and,
(iii) Enhancing digital literacy for children, families and schools.
UNICEF has also warned that overly broad prohibitions may lead to unintended consequences, as children could migrate to less-regulated platforms. Restrictive measures should therefore be combined with education and digital skills support.
International experience offers several important lessons for Vietnam.
First, any restrictive policy must receive broad public support and be accompanied by effective communication campaigns to build social consensus.
Second, primary responsibility should rest with digital platforms rather than criminalising children or parents.
Third, Vietnam should develop an effective age-verification mechanism by leveraging the National Population Database while ensuring the protection of personal data.
Fourth, restrictive measures should form only one part of a broader strategy that includes digital literacy education in schools and training programmes for parents.
Finally, implementation should follow a reasonable roadmap, including pilot programmes, continuous evaluation and flexible adjustments, while also strengthening international cooperation to address cross-border platforms.
Existing legal framework for protecting children in cyberspace
Vietnam has established a relatively comprehensive legal framework governing the protection of children in cyberspace.
The 2016 Law on Children (coded 102/2016/QH13) serves as the foundational legal instrument, defining children as persons under the age of 16 and dedicating Article 54 to the responsibilities of agencies, organisations and individuals in protecting children online.
Under this provision, relevant authorities and organisations are responsible for education, awareness-raising and child protection, while parents, teachers and caregivers are tasked with equipping children with knowledge and self-protection skills.
The 2018 Law on Cybersecurity (Coded 24/2018/QH14) contains a separate provision, Article 29, dedicated to the protection of children in cyberspace.
The provision affirms children’s rights to protection, access to information, participation in social activities and the protection of personal secrets and private life.
The law also assigns responsibilities to information system administrators and service providers to control content, prevent and remove harmful information affecting children and cooperate with the specialised cybersecurity force under the Ministry of Public Security.
On December 25, 2024, Government Decree 147/2024/ND-CP on the management, provision and use of internet services and information in cyberspace entered into force, requiring children under the age of 16 to register social media accounts using the information of their parents or legal guardians. The decree also places responsibility on parents to supervise the content children access, upload and share. The regulation marked an important step towards establishing preventive control mechanisms at the registration stage.
Most recently, the 2025 Law on Cybersecurity (Law 116/2025/QH15), which takes effect on July 1, 2026, introduced and clarified several significant provisions. Article 16 establishes a comprehensive legal framework for preventing and combating child abuse in cyberspace through four key elements: (i) children enjoy full rights in cyberspace; (ii) children’s social media accounts must be registered by parents or legal guardians; (iii) platform operators are required to monitor and remove harmful content affecting children; and (iv) child protection is recognised as a shared responsibility of society as a whole.
Article 35 further regulates the dissemination of cybersecurity knowledge, emphasising guidance for children, older people and persons with limited cognitive capacity to strengthen their self-protection abilities.
In addition, Government Decree 56/2017/ND-CP, which guides implementation of the Law on Children, provides detailed regulations on child protection in cyberspace, including measures to safeguard private information, ensure the safety of information exchange and provision, and establish support and intervention mechanisms for child victims.
Government Decree 130/2021/ND-CP on administrative sanctions in the fields of social protection and children imposes fines ranging from VND10 million to VND30 million for violations relating to child protection in the online environment.
Achievements
Over recent years, Vietnam has achieved several notable results in protecting children in cyberspace.
First, the legal framework has gradually been strengthened to clarify the responsibilities of key stakeholders, particularly parents, guardians and digital platform providers.
Second, competent authorities, especially specialised cybersecurity forces under the Ministry of Public Security, have implemented a range of preventive, investigative and enforcement measures. According to official reports, police detected and handled 156 cases involving child abuse in cyberspace between 2023 and 2025.
Third, the Ministry of Information and Communications, now the Ministry of Science and Technology, has directed the development of technical systems to support the prevention and removal of harmful content affecting children. The Prime Minister also issued Decision 830/QD-TTg approving the Programme on Protecting and Supporting Children to Interact Healthily and Creatively in the Online Environment for the 2021-25 period.
Fourth, public awareness of online child safety has improved significantly through communication campaigns and legal education initiatives.
Limitations in the legal framework and law enforcement
Despite these advances, the current legal framework still contains significant shortcomings. Existing regulations remain fragmented and lack consistency and uniformity. The Law on Children, the Law on Cybersecurity and related decrees and circulars were promulgated at different times, resulting in overlaps, inconsistencies and legal gaps.
In addition, there is still no explicit prohibition on children below a certain age using social media. The current approach merely requires parents to register and supervise accounts. In practice, however, children can easily circumvent these requirements by providing false dates of birth, borrowing accounts from relatives or using anonymity tools such as VPN services.
Regulations on age verification also remain impractical and difficult to enforce effectively. The requirement for parents to register accounts on behalf of children is not supported by an effective electronic authentication mechanism linked to the National Population Database.
Existing sanctions also lack sufficient deterrent effect, particularly for cross-border platforms. The maximum fine of VND30 million under Government Decree 130/2021/ND-CP is negligible compared with the substantial revenues of multinational technology corporations such as Meta, TikTok and Google.
More importantly, Vietnam’s law has yet to establish specific obligations requiring cross-border platforms to maintain legal representatives in Vietnam, establish Vietnamese-language content moderation units and submit periodic reports on child protection measures.
Enforcement capacity relating to child protection in cyberspace also remains inadequate. Awareness among parents, teachers and caregivers regarding legal obligations and online safety skills remains uneven. Many families lack the time, knowledge and technical tools needed to supervise children’s online activities effectively.
At the same time, law enforcement personnel, including investigators, prosecutors and judges, continue to face limitations in specialised expertise related to collecting, preserving and using electronic evidence in cases involving online child abuse.
Coordination among the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Education and Training also remains inconsistent, with limited mechanisms for timely and effective information sharing.
Furthermore, resources allocated for child protection in cyberspace remain limited, including budgetary funding, personnel, technical equipment and information technology infrastructure. The network of social assistance facilities for child victims also remains insufficient in both quantity and quality.
International cooperation in combating cross-border crimes involving child abuse continues to face considerable challenges because of differences in legal systems and mutual legal assistance procedures.
Overall, although Vietnam has developed a relatively comprehensive legal framework, both substantive regulations and enforcement capacity continue to contain significant gaps and shortcomings. This situation highlights the urgent need for further legal reform, including consideration of restrictive measures on children’s use of social media as part of a broader preventive strategy, while simultaneously strengthening enforcement capacity and international cooperation.
Recommendations
Based on the analysis of the current legal framework, enforcement capacity and international experience, the author argues that Vietnam should shift from a strategy of management and supervision towards one of preventive and proactive restriction regarding children’s use of social media. Restricting children under the age of 16 from using social media would constitute a special protective measure consistent with the spirit of Politburo Resolutions 57-NQ/TW and 66-NQ/TW, as well as progressive legislative trends worldwide.
Improving the legal framework through restrictive regulations
First, the 2025 Law on Cybersecurity and the 2016 Law on Children should be amended to include a separate provision prohibiting children under the age of 16 from creating, owning or using accounts on social media platforms.
The list of affected platforms should be clearly defined and include at least Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Snapchat, Threads, Telegram’s social functions and similar platforms featuring interaction, content sharing and algorithmic recommendation systems. Such regulation should be grounded in the principle of the best interests of the child under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Second, the law should clearly impose compliance obligations on platform providers rather than penalising children or their parents or legal guardians, except in cases where parents intentionally facilitate circumvention through forged documents or false verification information.
Sanctions against non-compliant platforms must be sufficiently deterrent. Vietnam could draw on the models of Australia and the United Kingdom by imposing fines of up to 10 per cent of a platform’s global revenue generated in the Vietnamese market or a minimum of VND 50 billion, whichever is higher. Additional sanctions, including partial or complete suspension of operations in Vietnam for repeated serious violations, should also be considered.
Establishing an effective and privacy-respecting age-verification mechanism
Effective implementation of restrictive measures requires a reliable, unified and privacy-respecting age-verification mechanism. The author proposes leveraging the National Population Database and the chip-based citizen identification system already implemented nationwide.
Specifically, the Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with the Ministry of Science and Technology, should establish a centralised age-verification gateway through a secure API, enabling social media platforms to submit authentication requests without collecting or storing sensitive user data. This mechanism should return only binary results - eligible or not eligible - without disclosing detailed personal information.
For foreign users or individuals without citizen identification cards, alternative verification methods recognised by competent authorities should be permitted, including passports, birth certificates integrated with identification numbers or licensed third-party verification services.
Age verification should be conducted only once during account registration and platforms should be prohibited from permanently storing users’ identification information.
Strengthening legal responsibilities of cross-border platforms
Cross-border social media platforms operating in Vietnam, including Meta, TikTok, Google, X and Telegram, should be required to fulfil the following obligations:
Establish a legal representative office in Vietnam to assume legal responsibility, receive requests from competent authorities and coordinate the removal of violating content within 24 hours;
Develop Vietnamese-language content moderation systems staffed by personnel trained in Vietnamese culture, law and child protection regulations;
Publicly disclose periodic reports, either quarterly or biannually, regarding the number of accounts denied or deactivated due to age violations, the quantity of harmful content removed and the technical measures implemented; and
Establish safety-by-design mechanisms for users aged 16 to 18, including disabling algorithmic content recommendations, limiting usage time, prohibiting personalised advertising and providing simple, user-friendly abuse-reporting tools.
Implementation roadmap and impact assessment
Restrictive measures should be implemented gradually to avoid sudden disruption to society and platform operations.
During the preparation phase from 2026 to 2027, it is proposed that authorities complete the necessary legal documents, develop the age-verification gateway linked to the population database and pilot implementation on several major platforms in two or three cities, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. At the same time, nationwide communication campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness and build social consensus.
During the official implementation phase from 2028 onwards, the measures could be applied nationwide across all listed platforms. A six-month grace period should be provided to allow platforms to adjust their technical systems and operational procedures.
In the evaluation and adjustment phase, following two years of implementation, independent assessments should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures, including indicators such as rates of children accessing social media, the number of child abuse cases related to cyberspace and feedback from parents, schools and experts. Based on these evaluations, amendments and adjustments should be introduced where necessary.
Controlled exceptions and alternative solutions
Restrictive measures should not be applied rigidly to all online activities involving children. Reasonable and carefully controlled exceptions should be designed to ensure children’s rights to access information and education.
Accordingly, children should be permitted to use educational platforms certified as safe by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Science and Technology, including official online learning systems and educational applications. Such platforms should not be classified as prohibited social media services.
Children may also participate in educational activities directly supervised by teachers or parents through video-conferencing tools such as Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, provided that the use remains educational in nature and does not include social media features such as public news feeds, recommendation algorithms or unrestricted public interaction.
For users aged between 16 and 18, rather than imposing a complete prohibition, platforms should be encouraged to establish teen accounts with strict limitations on content, screen time and privacy settings. This approach not only seeks to protect children from the potential harms of social media but also recognises their developmental and educational needs in a manner appropriate to their age.
Strengthening digital literacy education and family support
Restrictive measures can achieve long-term effectiveness only when accompanied by education and capacity-building programmes. Education on cybersecurity, awareness of online risks and protection of personal data should therefore be integrated into the formal school curriculum from primary level onwards in a manner appropriate to each age group. This requirement is reflected in Article 35 of the 2025 Law on Cybersecurity.
At the same time, short-term training and certification programmes should be developed for parents and guardians, focusing on supervision skills, the use of parental control tools and methods for supporting children in digital environments.
In addition, free technical support should be provided to disadvantaged families to help install child protection and parental control software on smart devices. Extracurricular activities in sports, culture and the arts should also be expanded both within and beyond schools to create healthy and attractive alternatives to social media use.
Enhancing enforcement capacity and international cooperation
To ensure effective implementation, Vietnam should prioritise organisational and law enforcement measures.
In particular, an inter-agency specialised unit should be established under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Education and Training.
The unit would be responsible for monitoring compliance, receiving and handling reports of violations and providing technical support to digital platforms during the transition process.
At the same time, the investigative capacity of specialised cybersecurity forces should be strengthened through training in electronic evidence collection, big data analysis and cross-border cooperation.
Vietnam should also strengthen international cooperation through mutual legal assistance agreements and information-sharing mechanisms with countries that have implemented similar measures, including Australia, Indonesia and member states of the European Union, as well as international organisations such as UNICEF and INTERPOL.
At the same time, the country should continue playing a proactive role within the framework of the Hanoi Convention. Finally, an independent monitoring and reporting mechanism should be established to periodically assess the effectiveness of the regulations and recommend timely adjustments.
In conclusion, restricting children under the age of 16 from using social media should not be viewed as a standalone measure, but rather as part of a comprehensive and strategic preventive approach that prioritises the best interests of children.
Together with coordinated measures in technology, education, enforcement and international cooperation, such restrictions could help create a safe and healthy digital environment in which Vietnamese children are genuinely protected and able to develop comprehensively in the digital era.-
