Vietnam's communist government is proposing severe penalties for internet cafe owners who allow customers to visit anti-government or pornographic websites, officials and state-controlled media said today.
Internet cafe owners will also need to obtain special licenses requiring checks into their personal history, they said.
The proposals by the ministry of culture and information follow a three-week inspection of internet cafes in the country's 61 cities and provinces.
The inspections found that most customers in the estimated 4,000 internet cafes are students between the ages of 14 and 24, a ministry inspector said. About 70% use the internet for chatting, 10% for games and 10% for email, he said. Only 10% surf websites, with half accessing sites with anti-government or pornographic content, he said.
The government and the ruling communist party, concerned by the increasing numbers of Vietnamese who have access to news from outside sources, have attempted in recent months to tighten control over information.
The inspections found that most internet cafe owners have little knowledge of government regulations governing internet use and do not control their customers' activities online, today's Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted Phan An Sa, the ministry's deputy chief inspector, as saying.
Mr Sa said the government should assign specific tasks to state agencies and cafe owners to prevent access to "poisonous and harmful" information.
State-owned Vietnam Data Communications, currently Vietnam's only internet gateway, should block as much anti-government information as possible, while the ministry of public security should provide it with updated lists of websites containing such information, he added.
Mr Sa said owners of internet cafes would be severely punished if they allowed customers to visit anti-government or pornographic sites. He did not elaborate.
Many Vietnamese, including those overseas, use the internet to share information and opinions about the government and political system. Earlier this month, the ministry shut down a popular website, TTVNOnline.com, for carrying information critical of the government.
In February, computer science lecturer Le Chi Quang was arrested for writing an essay criticising concessions made by Vietnam in a border agreement with China and posting it on the internet. Mr Quang will be tried on charges of violating national security, foreign ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said yesterday.
Vietnam's constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, but in practice both are significantly restricted. All media are controlled by the government.