Vietnam cracks down on online games

Jul 16, 2010, 6:26 GMT

Hanoi - The Vietnamese government has ordered its ministries and agencies to tackle the harmful effects of online games, state media and officials said Friday.

'Clearly online games have had a bad influence on players,' said Tran Ngoc Huong, chief inspector of Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Information and Communication. 'They affect players' health, learning and cause social crimes when players don't have money.'

According to the Vietnamese government's figures, there are 44 local and 35 foreign online game providers in Vietnam. Violent online games account for 77 per cent of the total, gambling games for 9 per cent and 14 per cent involve football, dancing or racing.

There has been a public and media outcry recently about the negative influence of online games after several murders by youngsters. In April, a 16-year-old schoolboy allegedly cut his grandfather's throat after he was refused money for online games.

Pham Quoc Ban, director of the Hanoi Department for Information and Communication, said there were too many different state agencies authorized to manage internet shops.

The lack of coherent co-operation had led to an absence of strict rules, appropriate punishments and technical methods to control illegal games, he said.

On Wednesday, Ban introduced measures to limit their harmful influence, including imposing an 11-pm curfew on online gaming.

The chairman of Ho Chi Minh City's People Committee, Le Hoang Quan, on Thursday told the city's Department of Information and Communication to take measures, state-run newspaper Viet Nam News reported.

The suggested measures to limit online games and punish companies providing violent games included using criminal penalties, the report said.

Le Manh Ha, director of the city's Department of Information and Communication, said online game service providers would have to rate online games based on six levels depending on the degree of violence.