So add this one to your creepy dystopian nightmare-fuel bin: In the war on supposed gaming addiction, at least one corporation is hoping to use facial recognition to stop kids from playing games.
The company here is Tencent, because of course it is; according to the BBC, it’s testing facial recognition for “thousands” of players of the extremely popular Honour of Kings mobile title in major Chinese cities. (You’ll recognize it better from its global name, Arena of Valor.)
“Under pressure from local regulators, Tencent introduced restrictions in July 2017 to limit under-12s to one hour of gameplay a day and 13- to 18-year-olds to a maximum of two hours,” the Beeb reports. “Last month, the company added a real-name registration system to encourage players to keep to the rules. The facial-recognition test appears to be a further effort to discourage young players from trying to circumvent the time limits.”
The move appears to be pertinent to China’s ongoing video game industry regulation, which has worried scientists, halted game launches in the region, and wounded Tencent’s stock value in particular.
