Music videos get too provocative

Singer Chi Pu recently made a comeback with the contentious "Black Hickey", which elicited a strong reaction from the public for its sensual scenes, which were lustful and promoted sex at the workplace.

In the video, she bends over and makes provocative movements while wearing daring outfits and clambers up a desk to seduce a married man, and the video shows intimacy between the two in an elevator in dim lighting.

The video also features a shot between her legs.

Many viewers online have expressed concern and want the music video removed from YouTube due to such offensive scenes.

The video has raked in thousands of views since its upload on August 12.

This is not the first time a music video is sparking a public outcry for depicting sexual scenes.

Singer Trang Phap's ‘Fabulous’, released in 2020, was panned for a scene of a ripped male model revealing an entire buttock.

The trend has recently resurfaced with an increase in the number of videos with sexual and explicit content.

Besides, after many popular singers' sensual videos quickly rose to the top of YouTube's Top Trending chart, many lesser-known singers became copycats to attract views.

A few months ago there was Du Uyen's "Duyen Duyen So So" (rough translation: Destiny), in which the singer acts as a nude female model for a painter and exposes her bust.

The video then depicts scenes of the model and artist falling in love and having sex in bed.

There has been a vigorous debate about the need for age restriction labels and tightening the management of music video contents on online platforms, and how authorities should deal with vulgar music videos.

The explosion of social networks is bringing steamy music videos into the public realm without being subject to rating or censorship.

Only the platforms can flag and show less of such videos unless users report them.

Besides, on platforms like YouTube, users can turn off or bypass ‘safety mode’ and other age restrictions.

Vietnam only requires movies to be classified based on viewers’ ages and not music videos.

Many singers, however, have stated that they have the right to be creative in their music products.

Hong Quang Minh, marketing communication manager at 1989s Entertainment, believes Vietnam should impose age restrictions as well as content labeling for entertainment products.

He points out to VnExpress International that in many countries like the U.S., the U.K. and South Korea such classification based on viewers’ age and content is mandatory. He believes that artists, record labels and music distributors, and not just professionals and experts, should also be involved in the age and content evaluation process.

This will restore the balance with the artist's creativity, he says. "Undoubtedly, this will have an effect and cause the artists to be more cautious when developing creative elements. "However, this is necessary in the long run for civilized and healthy entertainment that can serve a diverse audience."

YouTube was the second most used app by Vietnamese children in the first quarter of this year, according to digital security company Kaspersky.