Tencent Photo:VCG

 
Chinese tech company Tencent said on Thursday that it investigated after news about one of its games, Honor of Kings, being played at midnight. It found the player was 60 years old, and not a teenager.

Tencent tracked an account after a three-day investigation based on news report, which had been detected as operation by teenagers on several occasions but had passed 17 times of real person tests via face recognition since March, 2021. The account also passed two times of real person tests after September 1, the day that launched the new teenager game time restriction. 

Tencent noted that based on their findings, the account was being operated by a real person aged 60. However, the teenager protection mechanism of the game does not have more authority to detect whether the account was being used by others. 

Media reported recently that a game account for Tencent’s Honor of Kings recorded a so-called ‘penta kill’ [kill opponents in streak of five] at midnight of 3 am in a ranking game. The topic quickly went viral on Chinese social media and also attracted netizens attentions on recently new regulation of game time for targeting teenagers. 

Tencent noted in the announcement that to appeal parents not to unlock gaming accounts on for their children, and request responsible regulators to enhance supervision.