Tencent Games, the gaming giant from China with shares in almost every gaming company on the planet is ready to launch one of the most talked-about and controversial surveillance systems to monitor minors gaming secretly at night.
Tencent will be updating its gaming platform’s facial recognition and verification system to help and monitor minors and players who spend a significant amount of time gaming online. Tencent’s facial verification will be linked with China’s central public security system and will alert parents and authorities in case someone is found gaming past the midnight 10 p.m. curfew.
Tencent dubs the initiative as“Midnight Patrol,” and aims to deter minors from using “tricks” to pose as adults between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
“We will conduct a face screening for accounts registered with real names and that have played for a certain period of time at night. Anyone who refuses or fails the face verification will be treated as a minor, and as outlined in the anti-addiction supervision of Tencent’s game health system, and kicked offline,” said Tencent Games.
The system will initially launch in over 60 popular games, including “Honor of Kings” and “Game for Peace.” The company plans to incorporate this feature in every game they offer in China at a later date.
The announcement has received mixed reactions from the public, with the younger generation marking it as “desperate news”, while the older generation is celebrating over the feature and calling it a game-changer in China’s drive against gaming addiction.
