Vietnam is weighing the most unusual version yet of the youth social media bans that are sweeping the globe. Instead of kicking kids off platforms entirely, the country wants to let them stay logged in — just muted.
Under a draft decree from Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, reported on Friday by Reuters, users under 16 would keep their social media accounts but lose the ability to post, comment, or react to content. The proposal would require social media accounts for children under 16 to be registered under a parent, who would then be responsible for monitoring the content the child accesses and their time spent on the platforms. The platforms themselves would be required to deploy technical measures to identify which of their users are children and restrict them to age-appropriate content.
