Vietnam is considering new restrictions on social media use by children under 16, adding to a fast-growing global push to limit how young users interact with major online platforms.
The proposal is unusual because it does not appear to remove children from social networks entirely. Instead, under-16 users would reportedly be allowed to keep accounts, but would lose the ability to post, comment, or react to content.
That makes Vietnam’s approach more targeted than a simple age ban. It tries to preserve access while reducing participation, visibility, and exposure to social pressure. Whether that can be enforced cleanly is the harder question.
Tech Block Central has already covered how online identity and verification are becoming more important as AI changes the internet, including the World Foundation identity debate. Child social media rules sit in the same wider problem: governments want age controls, but reliable verification can create privacy risks.
What Vietnam Is Considering
Vietnam’s draft decree would reportedly require social media accounts for children under 16 to be registered under a parent. Parents would then be responsible for monitoring the child’s content access and time spent on platforms.
Platforms would also need technical measures to identify child users and show age-appropriate content. That puts more responsibility on social networks, not only on families.
Deputy Culture Minister Phan Tam said the goal is not to ban or heavily restrict children’s access, but to make sure young users are in a suitable online environment. The proposal has not been finalized and could still change before adoption.
Vietnam is also considering gaming restrictions for under-16 users. Those rules would reportedly limit play to 60 minutes a day per game and use a similar parental registration model.
Countries Moving Toward Child Social Media Restrictions
Several governments are now moving in the same direction, although the details vary widely.
Australia
- Australia became the first country to implement a broad under-16 social media ban in late 2025.
- The rules target platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick.
- WhatsApp and YouTube Kids are not included.
- Platforms may face large penalties if they fail to take reasonable steps to keep underage users off their services.
Europe
- France passed a law banning social media access for users under 15, with implementation expected soon.
- Denmark is preparing an under-15 ban and age-verification tools.
- Greece plans to restrict social media access for children under 15 starting in 2027.
- Spain is considering an under-16 ban that still needs parliamentary approval.
- Germany, Poland, and Slovenia have also discussed or drafted age-based restrictions.
Asia And Other Markets
- Indonesia has said it plans to restrict under-16 access to social media and other major online platforms.
- Malaysia has said it plans to introduce an under-16 social media ban.
- Turkey’s parliament passed a bill to restrict under-15 access, pending final approval.
- Vietnam’s proposal would allow under-16 accounts but limit posting, commenting, and reactions.
United Kingdom
- The UK has announced plans for an under-16 social media ban.
- The proposed rules would apply to platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.
- Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal are expected to be excluded.
- AI “romantic companion” chatbots would also face age restrictions, limiting use to adults.
Why Governments Are Acting
The stated concerns are broadly similar across countries. Lawmakers are worried about cyberbullying, addictive design, mental health effects, sleep disruption, exposure to harmful content, and the risk of predators contacting children online.
Those concerns are not new, but the political pressure has increased. Social media is now deeply embedded in school life, youth culture, entertainment, messaging, and creator platforms. Parents often feel they are managing a problem that individual households cannot solve alone.
Governments are responding by shifting responsibility toward platforms. Instead of asking parents to police every app manually, new laws often require companies to identify young users, limit access, or prove they have strong protections.
The Privacy Problem
Age checks sound simple until they have to work at scale. Platforms may need IDs, facial estimation, payment records, parental approvals, device signals, or third-party verification systems. Each method has tradeoffs.
Strong checks can reduce underage access, but they can also create sensitive databases about children and families. Weak checks protect privacy better, but may be easy to bypass. That is the central tension in most child social media legislation.
Critics also argue that bans may push children toward less visible spaces, shared accounts, VPNs, or platforms with weaker moderation. That could make some risks harder to see instead of removing them.
Why Vietnam’s Model Is Different
Vietnam’s proposed approach is notable because it focuses on limiting interaction rather than blocking access entirely. A child could still view content, but would not be able to publicly post, comment, or react.
That could reduce some social pressure and public exposure while preserving access to information, entertainment, education, and creator content. It may also be easier to present politically than a full ban.
But it still depends on accurate age identification. If platforms cannot reliably identify under-16 users, the rules may be hard to enforce. If they can identify them too aggressively, privacy concerns grow.
What Platforms Should Expect Next
Social media companies should expect child safety rules to keep spreading. The details will differ by country, but the direction is clear: governments want more control over how minors use social networks.
That means platforms will need better age assurance, parental control tools, child-specific content systems, and clearer records showing how they comply with local laws.
For users, the result may be a more fragmented internet. A 15-year-old could have different access rights depending on whether they are in Australia, France, Vietnam, the UK, or Indonesia.
The bigger question is whether these policies will actually make young users safer, or whether they will create a new layer of surveillance and uneven enforcement. Should governments restrict children’s social media access, or should platforms be forced to redesign the product itself?