Taking advantage of child images for personal gain may be fined 50 million VND

Lawyer Nguyen Thi Thuy, YouMe Law Company Limited answers:

Article 24, Decree No. 98/2026/ND-CP stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of social protection, social assistance and children (effective from May 16, 2026) stipulates the prohibition of child abuse and exploitation as follows:

1. A fine of between 20 million VND and 30 million VND shall be imposed for one of the acts of forcing children to do household chores that are too strenuous or time-consuming, affecting learning, playing, entertainment, and adversely affecting children's development.

2. A fine of between 30 million VND and 40 million VND shall be imposed for one of the following acts that have not yet reached the level of criminal prosecution:

a) Organizing and forcing children to beg;

b) Renting, lending children or using children to beg for food;

c) Leading, inciting, instigating, seducing, luring, inciting, taking advantage of, forcing to act as intermediaries in transactions of child exploitation activities;

d) Leading, inciting, instigating, seducing, luring, inciting, taking advantage of, and forcing children to work against the provisions of law.

3. A fine of between 40 million VND and 50 million VND shall be imposed for acts of taking advantage of children's images and personal information to create content that causes harm to the physical and mental development of children or for personal gain but not serious enough to be prosecuted for criminal liability.

4. Remedial measures:

a) Forcing the return of illegal profits obtained from the act of violating the provisions of Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article;

b) Compulsory payment of all medical examination and treatment costs for children in cases of violation of the acts specified in Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3 of this Article that cause injury or harm to children's health but not serious enough to be prosecuted for criminal liability.

Clause 2, Article 6 of Decree No. 98/2026/ND-CP stipulates the fine level and authority to apply the fine level as follows:

2. The penalty level specified in Chapter II of this Decree is the penalty level applied to administrative violations of individuals, except for Articles 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 34, Clause 1, Clause 2, Article 35 and Clause 2, Article 37 of this Decree. For the same administrative violation, the penalty level for organizations is twice the penalty level for individuals.

Thus, from May 16, 2026, people who take advantage of children's images for personal gain may be fined from 40 million VND to 50 million VND and remedial measures as above.