Chinese gaming giant Tencent is expanding its use of facial recognition technology to prevent minors from playing its games during a government-mandated curfew. The 'midnight patrol' system, as it is called, will require players who have been active for a certain duration to undergo a facial scan to verify they are adults.
The curfew, introduced in 2019, bans under-18s from playing between 22:00 and 08:00 and limits their in-game spending. Players must register with their official IDs, which are linked to a national database. However, children have reportedly circumvented the restrictions by using adults' IDs.
Tencent began testing the facial recognition system in 2018, but it will now cover more than 60 games from the world's largest gaming company. The expansion was announced on China's QQ messaging service, with the term 'zero-hours cruising' translated by Chinese news site Sixth Tone as 'midnight patrol'.
Many of Tencent's top titles, such as Honour of Kings and Game for Peace, are mobile games, making facial recognition easier to implement using a phone's camera. Age verification via cameras is also being considered for online sales of adult products.
In China, video games have been criticised for negatively impacting young people, including causing near-sightedness. The government requires all new titles to be approved by a regulator, which froze releases in 2018 and has since limited the number of new games.
