HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan has sent an urgent dispatch to the Prime Minister asking the government to regulate the development and import of online games for their harmful effects.

HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan has sent an urgent dispatch to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asking the government to regulate the development and import of online games for their harmful effects.

According to HCM City authorities, online game business cause evil effects to the society, and it affects the material and spiritual development of many young people.

The city proposed that the Government orders the Ministry of Information and Communications to compile and make public standards that rate the violence level of online games. Based on these standards, the ministry could reassess already licensed online games and allow the continued circulation of only games that do not involve violence, gambling or pornography.

New games, according to the dispatch, need to be evaluated strictly. Those games that contain violence, gambling or pornographic content must not be issued licenses, including the importation of new games.

HCM City also suggested assessing the social impact of online games before granting licenses.

To discourage playing online games, HCM City authorities suggested the Government to approve a ban on advertising online games similar to prohibitions on advertising of alcoholic beverages and tobacco and that online games should be banned outright from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Game players have to be managed and should only be permitted to play three hours a day, the dispatch said.

The dispatch also said the Government should let localities that have many game players, for example HCM City and other big cities, to join the council for appraising the content of new online games.

It is estimated that 2 to 3 million Vietnamese young people play online games.

Previously the HCM City Department of Information and Communications asked 14 companies that distribute 65 online games in HCM City to self-assess the violence level in their games based on the department’s standards and a send report to this agency before July 21.

The department director Le Manh Ha said as the Ministry of Information and Communications doesn’t set standards to classify violence level in online games, his department had to build its own standards to manage online games in HCM City.

The department will also evaluate these 65 games itself. Depending on the violence level in each game, the agency will take specific measures to prevent unhealthy games and game addiction.

PV