Vietnam Bans Late-Night Gaming

The government of Vietnam, due to what they apparently see as too much online gaming from young people, has asked ISPs to block game traffic between the hours of 10PM and 8AM. The Vietnamese government has made statements as to the rationale of the actions, and one is that many game parlors in Vietnam blatantly refuse to close their doors to teens even though they are mandated by law to do so.

In reality, Vietnam has been cutting internet off to certain people at night since last September. Obviously ISPs are quite angry over this issue, protesting that everyone is being punished for the "wrong" (at least in the eyes of the Vietnamese government) committed by comparatively few. The government has no current plan to avoid removing adults' ability to play during late night hours either. However, what the Vietnamese government has said is that the current form of the ban is temporary, with revisions to the decree coming later this year. However, they have not said whether these revisions will be more lenient or more strict. We can only hope the former.

This is rather unfortunate news for a country that has only been getting into the internet in the last few years. Hopefully at the very least a less-strict regulation will come into practice if complete repeal isn't possible.