So that children in China cannot bypass the nighttime ban on video games using adult accounts, the games giant Tencent has taken a new approach. Translated “Midnight Patrol” is the name of the face exam that is now partially required.
Face exam during nightly gambling
According to The Register, citing a post by Tencent on local social media, accounts registered with the names of adults are checked at night between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. using facial recognition software. If the examination initiated after a certain period of time fails or is refused, the curfew for children prescribed in China comes into effect and the game goes offline.
Midnight Patrol should already use more than 60 games
According to the machine translation of the post, Tencent has already built the feature into more than 60 games, including “King of Glory”, which is reminiscent of League of Legends, and “Peace Elite”, which is a copy of PUBG. More products are to follow gradually. Primarily it is about mobile phone games, the smartphone always has the necessary camera with you.
Daily playtime is limited for children in China
In the fight against excessive consumption of video games, China introduced regulations in autumn 2019 that limit the playing time for children and young people under the age of 18 to 90 minutes on working days. They are not allowed to play between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Update 07/08/2021 3:35 p.m.
According to the Chinese news site Sixth Tone, the function can be activated with “Midnight Patrol ”translate. The article has been adapted accordingly.
The editorial team thanks community member “NguyenV3” for pointing out the update.