Image: AFP/Getty Images/fzant
Chinese tech giant Tencent has rolled out a facial recognition “midnight patrol” function to root out children masquerading as adults to get around a government curfew on underage gamers.
China bans people under 18 from playing online games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., part of a raft of rules introduced to weed out the excesses of gaming culture among the youth, from worsening eyesight to online addiction.
But many young players have navigated the restrictions by using gaming accounts registered by adults.
Online gaming giant Tencent this week moved to close those loopholes by implementing facial verification checks on anyone playing with an adult ID after the curfew.
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Tencent also said it would start requiring users to pass a facial recognition test when changing safety settings designed to let parents limit their children’s game usage, as “some children have stolen their parents’ phones” to modify the settings.
“Kids, put your phones away and go to sleep,” the company said in a social media post on Tuesday, July 6.
