Decree detailing a number of articles of the Law on Children

19/05/2017
The Government promulgates the Decree No. 56/2017/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Children.
This Decree details a number of articles of the Law on Children regarding groups of disadvantaged children and assistance policies; assistance and intervention for abused children, children at risk of violence, exploitation or abandonment and disadvantaged children; responsibility to protect children in the Internet environment; alternative care for children; and responsibilities of agencies, organizations, educational institutions, families and individuals to enable children to participate in children’s matters.
Private information of a child is information on name, age and characteristics for personal identification; information on health status and privacy written in health records; personal images; information on family members and caregiver of the child; personal property; telephone number and mail address; address of and information on residence place and native place; address of and information on school, class, learning result and friends of the child; and information on services provided for the child.

State management agencies in charge of information and communications; education and training; vocational education; and children; organizations operating for the benefits of children; and organizations operating in the Internet environment shall disseminate public information for raising public awareness, building capacity, and improving skills of parents and caregivers of children, teachers, children and related agencies and organizations with regard to the benefits and negative impacts of the Internet environment on children; and prevention and stoppage of acts of child abuse in the Internet environment in accordance with the laws on information technology and information security and other relevant fields.

Parents, teachers and caregivers of children shall provide safety knowledge and skills for children when participating in the Internet environment; children have the duty to learn knowledge and skills to protect themselves when participating in the Internet environment.

Providers of services in the Internet environment shall provide instructions on the use of services and information technology devices and on access to information in order to protect children in the Internet environment.
When publishing private information of a child on a network, a provider of services in the Internet environment or a person shall obtain the consent of the child’s parent(s) or caregiver and the child himself/herself if he/she is full 7 years or older; and shall ensure information safety for the child.

Providers of services in the Internet environment shall employ measures and tools to ensure safety for private information of children and deliver warning messages when children provide or change their private information.

Parents, caregivers and children aged full 7 years or older, and agencies, organizations and persons with child protection responsibility as prescribed by law have the right to request providers of services and persons operating in the Internet environment to remove private information of children to ensure safety and best interests of children.
In the course of formulating programs, policies, legal documents, socio-economic development master plans and plans on children or related to children, ministries, ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies (below referred to as document drafting agencies) shall involve children in the formulation as follows:

a/ To ensure that children be informed of contents of draft documents requiring the collection of opinions of children in one or more than one appropriate form prescribed in Clause 2, Article 74 of the Law on Children;

b/ To explain contents of draft documents in a manner understandable to children and enabling them to express their opinions and aspirations;

c/ To receive, consider and reply children’s opinions and aspirations or give explanations or answers to children’s opinions and aspirations which have been received in a form other than those prescribed in Clause 2, Article 74 of the Law on Children.

A drafting agency which does not directly collect opinions of children as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article shall collect opinions of children as follows:

a/ To send the draft document together with the contents requiring the collection of opinions of children to the organization representing the voice and aspirations of children or the Vietnam Child Right Protection Association for organizing the collection of opinions of children before the document drafting agency promulgates according to its competence or proposes a competent agency to promulgate the document;

b/ To study and assimilate opinions and aspirations of children expressed through the organization representing the voice and aspirations of children or the Vietnam Child Protection Association, and give explanations and feedback to the latter for notification to the children.

Dossiers issued according to competence or sent to competent agencies for appraisal, verification and issuance by document drafting agencies must include the summarization, explanation and assimilation of children’s opinions and aspirations in the general summarization, explanation and assimilation of opinions collected from agencies, organizations and individuals.

If receiving children’s opinions and aspirations on matters that have effects and influence on children in the course of guiding and organizing the implementation of programs, policies, legal documents and master plans and plans on socio-economic development, ministries, ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies shall consider them and directly give answers to children or agencies and organizations that forward these opinions and aspirations.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall guide, examine and inspect activities involving children in their matters; and suspend or propose competent agencies to suspend those activities which violate the law or are not in the best interests of children.