China's 'midnight patrol' cracks down on young gamers

Chinese gaming giant Tencent is rolling out facial recognition to stop children playing between 22:00 and 08:00.

The "midnight-patrol" technology will stop "tricks" circumventing the government curfew, introduced in 2019 with a cap on what young gamers could spend on in-game transactions, it says.

The bans require gamers to register with their official IDs, linked to a national database.

But children have reportedly been using adults' IDs instead of their own.

And now, anyone playing for a certain length of time will require a facial scan to prove they are an adult.