Only the front passenger seat still draws a fine: Vietnam's new child-seat rules, August 15

Decree 238/2026/NĐ-CP (Nghị định 238/2026/NĐ-CP), promulgated by the Vietnamese government on June 26, takes effect on August 15. It amends Decree 168/2024, which sets penalties for traffic violations, and two points matter for families with children. The penalty for carrying a child under 10 and under 135 cm without a proper safety device drops from a fine to a "warning." On the other hand, seating a child meeting the same conditions in the same row as the driver's seat still carries a fine of 800,000–1,000,000 dong (about 4,900–6,200 yen at 1 yen ≈ 162 dong). Mix up which side loosened and which stayed, and you'll seat your child in the most dangerous seat in the car. The more an expat family drives its own car in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, the more precisely it should grasp this asymmetry.

What Decree 238 changed was the “severity of the penalty,” not the obligation

Promulgated June 26, 2026, effective August 15. The government's legal database and a policy-explainer site (both chinhphu.vn) carry the same dates. The text includes a line: 'A driver of a car carrying a child under 10 and under 1.35 meters tall who fails to use an appropriate, compliant child safety device shall be given a warning.'

Only the penalty side moved. The requirement set out in Article 10(3) of the 2024 Road Traffic Order and Safety Law (amended 2025)—that children under 10 and under 135 cm use appropriate safety devices—The obligation itself remains. The text doesn't support reading it as "the fine is gone, so a child seat is unnecessary." A warning is also a form of administrative penalty; it just comes without money. Note that the clause dropping to a warning carries a parenthetical exception for "commercial passenger-transport vehicles."

The other prohibition is untouched. Seating a child meeting the same conditions in a seat in the same row as the driver falls under Article 6(3)(m) of Decree 168,Fine of 800,000 to 1,000,000 dongwas kept. In Thanh Nien's rundown of the changes under Decree 238, only riding without a device was eased, while sitting in the front row remains a finable offense, the paper sorts out. The only exception the text spells out is "a vehicle with a single row of seats."

January 1, July 1, then August 15: a start date pushed back twice

This rule didn't reach its current form in one step. The 2024 Road Traffic Order and Safety Law initially set the child-seat requirement to apply from January 1, 2026, and national technical standard QCVN 123:2024/BGTVT took effect the same day. But a 2025 legal amendment (118/2025) pushed the start to July 1, and the shape of the penalty was rewritten by Decree 238 from August 15. In about half a year, the deadline families face moved three times.

What to prepare as of the July 1 effective date, we've laid out before in a separate piece (You can't put your child in the front seat—a prep guide for Vietnam's new traffic rules taking effect in July). The natural reading is that Decree 238 is the sequel, in which 'of the two acts that had been slated for fines, only failure to use a device was reduced to a warning.'

But coverage splits on how July 1 to August 14 is handled. LuatVietnam reports, citing a June 30 explanation from the Traffic Police Department (Cục CSGT), that Decree 168's fines apply, while VnExpress writes that penalties were held off.How to read this gap period isn't settled. It's safer to decide how to seat children based only on the text in force from August 15, not on past practice.

Old and new penalties, and where other countries draw the line

One sheet on what changes across August 15. Yen conversions use about 162 dong to the yen.

Look at where other countries draw the line, too. The following is organized from a Dan tri article summarizing various national systems; details differ by country and state.

Between Japan, which sets the cutoff by age, and Europe, which sets it by height, VietnamOnly when both age and height apply—that's how it was narrowed. A 10-year-old over 135 cm is exempt; so is an 11-year-old at 130 cm. Judging by the Japanese instinct of "they're in elementary school" will get it wrong.

How it's taken locally: police allow leeway, researchers say start with the front seat

The Traffic Police Department (Cục CSGT) has taken a stance of reading the range of permitted devices broadly. It lists seat types, infant bed types and boosters equipped with a safety belt to secure the child, explaining that the driver must use them and instruct on their use. As for why commercial vehicles were left out of the requirement, it cites aligning with feasibility and the realities of Vietnamese traffic.

Researchers come at it from another angle. PGS.TS Phạm Việt Cường, head of the Center for Policy Research and Injury Prevention at the Hanoi University of Public Health (Trường Đại học Y tế Công cộng), reported that in a survey observing about 15,000 vehicles in 2020–2021, those using a device were 1.3% (Hanoi 2.6%, Ho Chi Minh City 1.1%, Da Nang 0%). Per VOV Giao Thong, the same survey found that 22.8% of vehicles had a child sitting alone in the front seat and 19.2% had one sitting with an adult. Ahead of spreading devices, correcting where children sit is what works.

The health-ministry-affiliated Sức khỏe & Đời sống paper carried age-band guidance as an explanation from the same Mr. Cuong. Under 1 year: an infant-specific seat; 1–4: a harnessed dedicated seat; 4–6: a high-back booster (for an assumed 15–25 kg); 6–11: a backless booster cushion (22–36 kg). According to him, the high-back booster's role is to raise the seat so the belt passes diagonally from the center of the chest to the shoulder, keeping it off the neck. If the belt sits on the belly rather than the chest, it can lead to internal injury or the child sliding under the belt.

Vietnamese papers aren't focused on children alone. Nhan Dan reported Decree 238 as tightening control of contract passenger transport, and Thanh Nien led with items where fines jump sharply, such as unlicensed ride-hailing. Child-related rules are a small corner of the decree as a whole, and slip past unless you deliberately pick them out.

Three things expat families should decide before August 15

Now to the practical side. First,Fix the seating assignmentmatters. With the front-seat fine still in place, a practice of 'the little one rides shotgun today' will lead straight to a ticket from August 15 on. Deciding where in the back the child's seat goes, and even the order of getting in, holds up better than deciding each time.

Next, whether to buy a device. With the penalty dropped to a warning, some families will put off buying, but if you're choosing, start from the standard. QCVN 123:2024/BGTVT, promulgated by Circular 48/2024/TT-BGTVT and effective January 1, 2026, defines child safety devices in two categories, CRS and ECRS (an enhanced type including ISOFIX-compatible i-Size). Each stage—manufacturing, assembly and import—is subject to conformity testing and certification, and labels must state the applicable weight or height range, the installation direction and safety warnings in Vietnamese.Whether it carries a compliance markingin store, and choosing it together with whether your car has ISOFIX anchors will save you from buying it twice.

The third is the choice of whether to drive yourself. Switching from a Japanese license is now open to 90-day visa holders too (Drive on a 90-day visa—Vietnam's license conversion opens its doors to business travelers too). If you drive yourself, both the duty and the penalty fall on you. Even with a driver, if the car is a private vehicle the device requirement still applies.

The gap left for taxis and Grab, and the ripple into the market

What comes into play as a gap in the rules is how commercial vehicles are treated. The 2025 legal revision explicitly states that the obligation to use safety devices does not apply to commercial passenger-transport vehicles. Taxis, ride-hailing cars, contract passenger vehicles, city buses, and tour buses have no obligation to carry a child seat even when carrying children. Cuc CSGT (the traffic police department) cites feasibility as the reason. Families who handle airport runs and school trips by ride-hailing app will, legally, be riding without a device.

But riding in the front row is a separate matter. The only vehicles the text exempts from this ban are "vehicles with a single row of seats"; it does not say commercial vehicles are exempt. Some explainer articles read commercial vehicles as also excluded, butThe only exception confirmable in the text is single-row vehicles. Since how enforcement plays out won't be clear until after August 15, the safe side is to decide that children ride in the back whether it's a taxi or a ride-hailing car. The front passenger airbag isn't suited to small bodies.

There's also the option of driving less. Ho Chi Minh City is making bus routes free, so for short urban trips you can leave the car behind (Ho Chi Minh City's city buses: 134 routes go free from July, changing how travelers get around）。

In the market, replacement with standard-compliant products is advancing. The starting point of a 1.3% usage rate shows how much room the supply side still has to grow. As long as QCVN 123:2024/BGTVT is in force, cheap products that don't meet the standard will be cleared from shelves. On the other hand, with the penalty loosened, the incentive to rush a purchase is weak, and the pace of uptake looks set to hinge on how far schools' and companies' expat rules push.

Practical notes: a quick reference to conditions, penalties, and exceptions

This article is based on the text and reporting as of August 15. If you're actually ticketed, please re-check the primary sources above down to the article number.

Summary

What takes effect on August 15 is the side where the fine remained, not the side where it disappeared. Seat a child under 10 and under 135 cm in the same row as the driver and it's 800,000 to 1,000,000 dong (about 4,900–6,200 yen); fail to use a device and it's a warning. The substance of the obligation stays in the law, while only the weight of the penalty drops on one side.

Three things to do this week. Fix the family's seating in the back and tell everyone. Check whether your child seat carries the QCVN 123:2024/BGTVT standard marking, and if not, reselect it to match your car's ISOFIX anchors. Decide that even on ride-hailing or taxi days, children don't sit in the front passenger seat. Birthdays and heights change every year, so set a day once a year to review whether a child has aged out, and the routine won't fall apart.

Sources:LuatVietnam／Government legal document database／Xây dựng chính sách／Thanh Niên／Dân trí／Dân trí (country comparison)／VnExpress／VnExpress (covered vehicles)／VietnamNet／VOV Giao thông／Giáo dục và Thời đại／Sức khỏe & Đời sống／LuatVietnam (transition period)／Nhân Dân