Vietnam Restricts Online Gambling To Protect The Youth

Vietnam has cut off overnight Internet access in public businesses and they’ve banned advertisements for online gambling pending new legislation to protect the country’s youth. Their has been a public outcry for legislation to protect the youth of Vietnam from the ills of gambling, pornography and other vices that are accessible via the Internet. This decision will remain in effect until the end of 2010. Vietnam is attempting to crack down on games with violent or pornographic content as well as gambling. They are restricting access to the Internet during overnight hours and attempting to control what citizens of their country can do over Internet.

Online games attract over 3 million of the country’s youth and some have blamed the sharp increase in juvenile crime on the influence of these online games. While the main focus seems to be on video games, the government included gambling as well. Internet cafes and other businesses using the public Internet will not be able to access the Internet from 11pm till 6am.