Việt Nam Geoblocks a Facebook Group: The Police Crackdown on ‘Children Who Hate Their Parents’

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of Việt Nam decided to sweep the “Con ghét bố mẹ” (Children Who Hate Their Parents) group off Facebook, a move that was both familiar and strange. [1] While heavy-handed, prohibitive behavior is an expected part of the police’s nature, it is unusual to see the MPS’s reach extend into non-political spaces designed for young people to express themselves. 

Behind this heavy-handed conduct of a police state lie well-worn habits and ways of thinking that have shaped the mindset of the entire system. 

A Hierarchical Society

As a rule, when an entity moves to crush something, it is typically because that thing violates a shared order or traditional way of thinking. Here, the order being preserved is a strict hierarchical society of superiors and inferiors. In this system, elders represent absolute truth; when they speak, obedience is mandatory. No one is allowed to hate, and nobody has the right not to love. 

While one might assume that domestic love and hate are nobody else’s business—let alone the People’s Police’s—the family is actually where concepts of rank, obedience, and authority first take shape. This domestic hierarchy follows individuals into society, serving as the foundation used to reinforce old Confucian institutions and construct a social order ruled like a family. 

Within this order, disobedience is treated as insolence and resistance as disrespect. Even the right to disagree with an elder can be stripped away in the name of filial piety. This habit of obedience must be cultivated from childhood to maintain a feudal society of rulers and subjects. 

When a child is taught that adults are inherently right simply due to age, they learn more than just household behavior. They absorb a model of power where status outranks reason, hierarchy supersedes dignity, and obedience eclipses self-determination.

Reinforcing family hierarchy is necessary to create the cultural foundation for patriarchal power relations; it shapes a social order that elevates submission to a virtue, thereby securing the survival of the political regime. 

A Society That Refuses to Listen

A mature society tolerates differing views through respectful listening, which is the minimum needed to recognize and address problems at their source. 

Take the case of Chu Ngọc Quang Vinh. When the young man confided in a private Facebook post that he hated the regime, he was immediately denounced to the ground. Rather than asking, “Have you had bad experiences under this system?” to understand his perspective, society assumed the communist government was the absolute truth and deemed his hatred immoral. [2 This attitude reflects an arrogant mindset incapable of admitting fault, and such toxic arrogance is the fastest way for a society to dig its own grave. 

Similarly, when children hate their parents, it occurs within the deeply private sphere of the family. Every household has its story, and outsiders cannot comprehend the complex mix of love and resentment within. 

Instead of silencing these voices, society should listen to these children’s experiences to identify flaws in modern parenting. Listening to these children could prevent lasting psychological harm and help build a better society. Instead, authorities shut down the space where children could express their feelings, dictating whether they are allowed to love or hate their parents. 

This approach solves no conflicts; it only allows resentment to fester. If parents are unhappy with their children’s words, they are welcome to create their own group. They may name it “Tụi bay làm con tao hơi lâu” (You Kids Have Been My Children a Bit Too Long) as a means of venting. However, invoking the power of the state to strip young people of their space to speak is unacceptable.  

Every Act is a Seed of Crime

When a society is too heavily ruled by its police, private feelings are stripped away, and even actions within one’s personal life are viewed as societal “risks.” 

Consider the administrator of a group similar to “Con ghét bố mẹ,” who was summoned by ward police for creating a space where young people could speak up. 

The official justification was noticeably strained: “When a group has negative, inciting, insulting, or fabricated content; infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of others; or has content that violates the law, the administrator’s responsibility must be considered in proportion to that person’s role, awareness, and actual conduct.” [3] 

The reality is clear. Claiming that the group “has negative, inciting, insulting, or fabricated content” and “infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of others” is rhetorical overreach. The authorities were trying to attach the most negative labels possible to a space that existed solely for children to express themselves. In a country where the security apparatus is always watching, expressions belonging to one’s personal life are viewed with suspicion and interpreted as threats to the social order. 

The line between public and private spaces has been erased, gradually turning the individual into an object of surveillance, prediction, and control. 

Ultimately, individual freedom is no longer a given. It must constantly justify its existence against unproven suspicions of societal harm, leaving every person to carry the burden of being labeled a “future criminal” for everything they do. 

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Đan Thanh wrote this op-ed article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on October 16, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English. The Vietnamese Magazine’s op-ed articles do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of its editorial board.