Hanoi - Vietnam's government is re-evaluating its strict regulations on internet cafes after protests from business owners who have largely ignored rules requiring monitoring of all users, an official said Tuesday.
The decision, first reported in the state media, was a rare admission of failure in the government's attempts to limit access to pornography and political websites deemed 'hostile' to the communist regime.
Internet cafes were ordered last year to ask all users for identification and record their details under a joint decree by the ministries of Posts and Telecommunications, Public Security, and Culture and Information.
But officials admitted that only a tiny percentage of cybercafes have complied with the order, which also requires installation of software to track what websites users visit.
'The regulations have faced with several difficulties with implementation,' admitted Nguyen Thinh Hai, chief investigator of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.
'Most of the internet cafe owners have said that they are not satisfied,' Hai said, 'so after this investigation, we will examine, [the regulations]. and if we see any requirements that are not able to be implemented, we will make a suggestion for adjustment and amendment.'
More than 90 per cent of internet cafe owners in Ho Chi Minh City protested government orders that all patrons must show identification before using the internet, according to the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper.
Another rule to require internet users under 14 to be accompanied by a guardian had only a little more support - 74 per cent of cybercafe owners opposed that rule.
Vietnam's government firewall is ostensibly to protect users from pornography, but a recent study by the OpenNet Initiative found the vast majority of blocked websites were political.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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