From July 1, 2026, the regulation requiring the use of child safety devices in cars will officially take effect.
This is considered an important step towards strengthening the protection of young children when participating in traffic, while setting specific responsibilities for vehicle operators.
Talking to Lao Dong about this content, Lawyer Hoang Ha (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) said that according to the provisions of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety in 2024, amended and supplemented in 2025, non-passenger transport business cars when carrying children under 10 years old and with a height of less than 1.35m must use appropriate safety equipment for children.
The group of vehicles subject to application includes family vehicles, private vehicles, vehicles of agencies and organizations that do not operate passenger transport business.
According to the lawyer, in these cases, the driver is responsible for using or guiding children to use appropriate safety devices.
Conversely, passenger transport business cars are exempt from the obligation to install and use separate safety equipment for children according to general regulations.
This group includes taxis, technology cars operating under the taxi or contract car model, fixed-route passenger cars, buses, tourist cars and other types of passenger transport business.
However, being exempted from regulations on seats or safety equipment for children does not mean that other safety assurance requirements are ignored.
Lawyer Hoang Ha noted that for preschool and school buses, the law still stipulates stricter separate conditions, such as equipping seat belts or seats suitable for the age group, and applying monitoring measures to prevent the situation of neglecting children on the bus.
In addition, the exemption applied to passenger transport business vehicles mainly stems from the requirement to ensure feasibility in practice.
In fact, safety equipment for children does not have a common standard for all ages but must be suitable for the height, weight and age of each child. If taxis, technology cars or passenger cars are forced to prepare all kinds of seats to meet all arising needs, it will be very difficult to implement," Lawyer Hoang Ha said.
In addition, the characteristic of passenger transport activities is the continuous change of passenger groups, fast pick-up and drop-off times, and it is impossible to know in advance whether children are accompanying or not. Arranging, dismantling and storing many types of specialized seats can incur costs, reduce the number of seats, and affect business operations.
Another reason given is to avoid negative impacts. In cases where taxis or service cars do not have the right type of seats, many parents may be forced to choose motorbikes to travel with their children, posing a higher risk of unsafety.
Despite being exempted from installing children's seats, taxi drivers, technology cars and passenger transport vehicles must still comply with regulations on children's seating positions. Accordingly, children under 10 years old and under 1.35m tall are not allowed to sit in the same row of seats with the driver, except in cases where the car only has one row of seats.
If the seating position is equipped with a safety seatbelt, passengers still have to fasten the seatbelt throughout the car's journey.
For personal vehicles subject to mandatory application, in case of not using appropriate safety equipment for children or allowing children to sit in the same row of seats with the driver in violation of regulations, the vehicle operator may be fined from 800,000 VND to 1,000,000 VND according to Decree 168/2024/ND-CP.
Lawyer Hoang Ha noted that violations not only include cases of not installing children's seats, but can also occur when the vehicle has equipment but is not used by children or is used improperly.
