Tencent testing facial recognition to enforce playtime restrictions in China

Tencent is testing out a new method of identifying Honour of Kings players in order to enforce playtime restrictions for underage players that uses some level of facial recognition tech.

The company rolled out a real-name system last month that requires Honour of Kings players to register their names in-game, which are then checked against China’s public security database to ensure underaged players don’t exceed government mandated playtime restrictions.

The BBC reports that Tencent is currently testing a system for a handful of Chinese players that takes that one step further and uses facial recognition to check if a player is trying to dodge time restrictions, though no information on the actual methods or technology being used has been provided. Tencent does note, however, that several users voiced concerns over a facial ID system and that it plans to evaluate the system following the trial before any full implementation is planned. 

The Chinese government’s age restriction system itself was revealed in late August and aims to combat myopia, more commonly known as near-sightedness, in children. Tencent, meanwhile, has been working on its own age-based playtime restriction systems for a little over a year now, according to the BBC.