Game publishers are expected to enforce a time limit of an hour per game session and not more than 180 minutes a day for all games.
Nguyen Minh Hieu, a 17-year-old high school student in Hanoi who admits he’s addicted to gaming, told AFP that the new restrictions would be “really tough” to follow — and to enforce.
Games are “designed to be addictive” he said. “We often spend hours and hours playing match after match.”
Just over half of Vietnam’s 100 million population regularly plays such games, says data research firm Newzoo.
A large proportion of the population is also on social media, with the MIC estimating the country has around 65 million Facebook users, 60 million on YouTube and 20 million on TikTok.
Under the new laws, these tech titans — along with all “foreign organisations, enterprises and individuals” — must verify users’ accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers, and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth.
They should provide it on demand to the MIC or the powerful ministry of public security.
The decree also says that only verified accounts can livestream, impacting the exploding number of people earning a living through social commerce on sites such as TikTok.
Neither Facebook parent company Meta, YouTube owner Google, nor TikTok replied to requests for comment from AFP.
