Vietnam is attempting to further tighten control on the internet with a new government decree that comes into effect at the end of July, state-run media reported on Friday.
Control measures introduced last year have been widely ignored, and government ministries are attempting to implement new rules governing access to the internet.
”From July 30, the inter-ministerial circular, which was developed from decision 71 of the Ministry of Public Security and document 1929 from the Ministry of Culture and Information, (MOCI), on monitoring in internet cafes‚ will come into effect,” said
Le Huyen Trang, an official of the internet management section of the MOCI.
Measures in the circular include banning people aged under 14 from internet cafes without adult supervision, closing internet cafes after midnight and making customers register with cafe owners when they log on.
With about 7,5-million people accessing the internet in Vietnam, the government recognises that enforcing the new regulations will be down to cafe owners.
”We can’t check thousands of sites at the same time,” Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Do Quy Doan is quoted as saying in the Vietnam News.
”But violators will receive strict punishment if caught.”
”They may not be the best solutions but they have a few shortcomings. They may not solve all the problems completely but we can find ways to solve this,” Doan said.
Firewalls on dozens of sites critical of Vietnam have been in operation for years, and rights groups say that Vietnam has imprisoned a handful of dissidents after they used the internet to send pro-reform messages. – Sapa-DPA