Tencent will mandate its PC and mobile players in China verify their age and identity against a police database starting next year.

The Chinese publisher had already introduced harsh police-verified age checks in Honor of Kings following the country’s crackdown on so-called gaming addiction. Not just this, other apparent concerns include myopia rates among children, which the government wants to reduce through tough new regulations.

In cities like Beijing, Honor of Kings requires local law verify a players age to keep underage players from long sessions. Tencent is also looking at facial recognition technology to restrict young players from binging. 

Tencent plans to extend this to nine of its other popular games by the end of this year, before making it a requirement across its entire catalogue starting in 2019.

The full story is available on our sibling site PocketGamer.biz