Tencent Holdings Ltd. has built a face recognition system to prevent children from gaming late at night in China’s latest effort to combat video game addiction. The plan will prohibit minors under the age of 18 from playing between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Player IDs would connect to a national database, and it will testify that underage gamers have been using adult IDs to get around the curfew.

This new face recognition technology, on the other hand, will be used to further verify that the player is an adult. Tencent will be able to use the facial-recognition technology to counter children’s strategies for circumventing current age limits, including utilizing their parents’ identities or gadgets.

The technology checks the age of gamers by scanning their faces.

According to the statement by Tencent Holdings Ltd. “Anyone who rejects or fails the face verification will be considered as a minor and booted off, as specified in Tencent’s game health system’s anti-addiction monitoring”.

The new limits are under Chinese government laws enacted in 2019 to combat video game addiction. Over 60 games will use the technology, including market-leading titles such as Honor of Kings and Game for Peace.

Tencent launched its ‘Gameplay Management’ system in 2019 to promote healthier gaming. This featured a message to acknowledge and regular pop-ups to take breaks when it first launched.

Around this time, the firm also introduced a “digital lock” mechanism, which limits users under the age of 15 to two hours of playtime each day.

Skeptics of facial recognition have expressed worries about data privacy in China. Beijing launched a contentious regulation in 2017 forcing internet and service providers to require customers to join up using their true names.

Critics argue that the move would raise the danger of security breaches while also enhancing the government’s capacity to monitor people’s actions.