Published , by Chris Jarrard
Published , by Chris Jarrard
Gaming addiction has been a serious problem in many countries in recent years. Some users will spend countless hours in front of PC at their homes or in internet cafes and the issue is also a problem with children. In an effort to reduce the amount of time underage players spend with their games, publisher Tencent will be leaning on its “Midnight Patrol” initiative. The initiative will use facial recognition to monitor and detect users who have played for too long or are gaming late into the night.
End-users who refuse to submit to facial scanning or otherwise fail the check will be booted offline. User accounts are already linked to real names and databases against which the Midnight Patrol system checks.
“We will conduct a face screening for accounts registered with real names and that have played for a certain period of time at night,” Tencent Games said. “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.”
The facial scanning feature will initially be tied to 60 different games, including Honor of Kings and Game for Peace. There are plans to expand the system further in the future. Tencent has reportedly been face-scanning its customers dating back to 2018. Tencent is the largest game publisher in China, with its releases accounting for 55% of the entire country's gaming market share in the first half of 2020. Honor of Kings has been the world’s most popular mobile game (by player count) for two years running.