Vietnam seeks to cap the daily playing time of under-16 gamers at 60 minutes and require parents to register their accounts, according to draft rules for online games compiled by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The proposals are part of draft amendments to Decree 147 on Internet-based services.

Under the draft, providers will have to limit a child’s daily play to no more than 60 minutes across all of their games aimed at under-16s. Systems will have to show a warning when 10 minutes remain and then a message ending play for the day once the limit is reached. The proposed ceiling would cut the current daily limit of 180 minutes for young players, according to the drafting authority.

Game companies would have to store each Vietnamese player’s full name, date of birth, and Vietnamese mobile number, and verify accounts by that number. Only verified accounts can play, apart from limited exceptions.

For under-16 players, a parent or guardian will have to register the account using the child’s details and the guardian’s Vietnamese phone number, and take responsibility for supervising the child’s playing time and the game contents.

The draft rules will require systems to link with licensed payment providers, to let players look up detailed records of their in-game spending, and to manage content exchanged or shared within games and on any game forums.

By the end of 2025, Vietnam had about 85.6 million Internet users, or 84.2 percent of the population, according to official figures. Domestic and foreign social media platforms featured 110 million and 203 million accounts, respectively.

Vietnam will not ban social media for under-16s, but requires parental oversight