Kids are trying to outsmart Tencent's facial recognition system by pretending to be their grandads
Honor of Kings' age check measure meets some very creative children
Tencent is now using facial recognition to verify the identity of players of its blockbuster mobile game Honor of Kings, known as Arena of Valor internationally. The system was introduced to prevent minors from spending too much time on the game, which has been described by Chinese state media as “poison.” But kids in China are already coming up with all kinds of hilariously unsuccessful tactics to cheat the system.
Arena of Valor, China’s mobile League of Legends, is aiming to be the world’s go-to mobile esport
- Secretly registering with your mother’s ID card and scanning her face while she’s sleeping.
- Pinching your throat and pretending to be a 70-year-old grandfather while talking to Honor of Kings customer service personnel.
- Coaxing or even commanding your parents to speak to customer service.
- Asking the lady working at the snack bar next to the school to impersonate your parents and convince customer service that their gaming doesn't need to be restricted.
The face recognition verification system for Honor of Kings was rolled out on Monday after a trial period. According to Tencent, this is the first time such data has been used by the gaming industry to screen users.
The company, one of the biggest gaming firms in the world, introduced real name verification for gamers after criticism from the Chinese government. The new requirement, awkwardly called “health system,” is meant to restrict minors’ playtime to 1 hour a day for children under 12, and 2 hours a day for 12 and older.
App blurs video if you hold the smartphone too close to your face
But this week's introduction of the facial recognition system didn't go entirely smoothly. Some annoyed players took to Weibo to complain about hiccups.
“Today the game mistakenly believed that I had logged in the wrong account and refused my real name,” said one Weibo user. “Now it's included in the ‘healthcare system,’ how do I go online? It's very urgent.”