Tencent Will Subject Players of Its Top Game to Police ID Checks

  • It’s stepping up age verification to combat addiction
  • The move coincides with criticism about gaming’s ill-effects
Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg
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Tencent Holdings Ltd. will begin using a policeBloomberg Terminal database to verify the ages and identities of players on its biggest mobile title, ramping up a campaign against game addiction in response to growing criticism about the industry’s ills.

In a first for China’s gaming industry, the social media titan will match players of the smash-hit Honour of Kings against a nationwide police database from next week, Tencent said on its official social media account. That’ll help surface under-aged users who’re subject to limits on play-time, it added.