Govt to rein in online gaming

The Minister of Information and Communications has outlined strict temporary measures to curb the extreme aspects of online gaming after the suspension of licensed online video games.

Minister Hop said the ministry has applied groups of measure with 15 specific solutions to limit the extreme aspects of online gaming.

Following stringent proposals outlined by HCM City Information and Communications Department and several localities to control online gaming, Hop called on authorised agencies to act with caution and avoid coming to hasty management plans.

He added that Viet Nam could learn from other countries but was confident that a comprehensive solution would be formulated that would effectively tackle the issue.

In five groups of measures set out to manage online games, the Minister has requested authorised agencies and businesses to implement provisional solutions including temporally granting licences on electronic online gaming so as to review mechanisms, policies and practices and draw experience to develop a new comprehensive policy.

Authorised agencies will cut the connections to internet agents from 23 pm to 6 am. Companies, businesses and families will not be subject to this measure.

Games designers will be instructed to produce healthy online games relating to history and cultural traditions.

The ministry plans to carry out basic measures to improve the legal framework in order to pass a law on information security. Through researching network management in other countries, it hopes to learn managerial skills for online gaming which is a social problem.

Hop said an agency will be established to take care of secure online information. Specifically, if companies violate the law, their licences will be revoked. The inspection of production facilities on online games will also be carefully controlled and any company found with products containing scenes of violence or sex will receive heavy fines.

Along with the new legislation, the minister also mentioned the importance of co-ordination between ministries, local authorities and families.

In particular, close co-ordination with the Ministry of Public Security will be necessary to prevent the access of games hosted on foreign servers. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will also conduct inspections on CDs and tapes on sale in market and the Ministry of Education will monitor network connections in school and hostels.

The minister also stressed the importance of the role of family and schools. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam online gaming