There are now more than 2.5 billion gamers across the world and, collectively, they spent an estimated $152.1 billion playing video games in 2019[1]. According to a recent report released by Chinese gaming database Gamma Data Corp[2], China is now the global leader in mobile gaming accounting for more than 30 percent of the world's overall mobile gaming market.
However, the domestic market has suffered significantly from a nine-month moratorium on approvals for online games during 2018 as well as new measures imposed by the government to reduce the screen time among children due to concerns over addiction and myopia (near-sightedness). A similar trend can be seen in countries worldwide. Just to illustrate, in 2018 gaming disorder has been listed as a mental health condition for the first time by the World Health Organization[3] and 15 European gambling regulators, joined by the US, came together to tackle lootboxes[4]. The following year, the UK government published ‘Online Harms’ White Paper[5] and the DCMS Select Committee released a report[6] specifically addressing public concerns over immersive and addictive technologies, a large part of which are video games.
Chinese gaming companies need government approval to sell games in the domestic market. Previously, the authorities already cracked down on content containing profanity, gore and pornographic elements and they are now focusing on limiting the number of new online games, restricting playing time and developing an age-restriction system. After temporarily freezing the clearance process, the Chinese government moved to implement play time restrictions in November 2019. Children are not allowed to play online and mobile games late at night and over a specific daily time limit. This means that gamers under 18 will be banned from playing online between 22:00 and 08:00. They will also be restricted to 90 minutes of gaming on weekdays and three hours on weekends and holidays.[7]
The industry is now facing the challenge of implementing these youth protection measures in a way that the authorities deem effective and appropriate. In order to protect children and minors from unsuitable content or excessive play time and meet their regulatory obligations, video games companies must first positively determine that a particular user is a child or minor. Online age-verification can be achieved through technical means, such as facial recognition.
Tencent, one of the biggest gaming firms in the world[8], has introduced a facial recognition system in December 2018, after a trial period, to help to identify the 200 million users playing their popular multiplayer mobile game ‘Honor of Kings’. The company announced plans to make verification systems mandatory for every single game in its library – both on mobile and desktop. This immediately raises number of fundamental questions regarding security, privacy and potential bias. In general, users will be reluctant to share data about themselves — data that is essential for the AI application to help inform decisions about people — unless they are confident that their privacy is protected, their data secured, and the decisions do not perpetuate any existing bias. And where children and minors are involved, an additional concern about their legal capacity to give consent for their data to be processed and used in this manner arises.
Tencent seems to be taking these issues seriously though. The company stated that users’ identity information will not be stored or used for any other purpose other than real name verification in game and that it will be encrypted. Using advanced technology such as machine learning, the age verification system will process images, facial expressions and in-game behaviour to determine if a player is a minor or not. The efficiency and accuracy of the system will however depend on the initial design. For example, if the system is trained solely on images of adult faces, it may not accurately identify the features or expressions of children due to differences in facial structure.[9] However, further information has been kept confidential.[10]
Like most emerging technologies that focus on identification and surveillance, facial recognition has the potential to be misused and lead to unexpected consequences. Cases where children used their parents’ or grandparents’ identities to gain access as an adult rather than a child have already been reported.[11] And even though the notions of data protection and privacy are being slowly introduced and implemented in the Chinese legal system through legislation such as the Cybersecurity Law[12], the approach conceptually varies from the path taken in EU and US. For example, we can expect that the data collected about players and their in-game behaviour will be linked back to the social credit system and therefore have a direct impact on citizens’ rights and privileges in the real life.[13]
Seeking the balance between effectiveness, functionality and freedom is not specific only to China and the video game industry. The research into the effectiveness of regulatory tools of online gambling in the EU has found out that despite the apparent ineffectiveness of website blocking (circumvention by users and operators), most regulators nevertheless considered it to be an effective enforcement measure[14]. As each new generation of consumers will rely on increasingly complex technologies and devices to carry out more functions, this will be at the cost of freedom.[15]
[1] ‘A billion new players are set to transform the gaming industry’ Wired (December 2019) https://www.wired.co.uk/article/worldwide-gamers-billion-players.
[2] ‘Chinese video game industry’s growth’ China Daily (July 2019) https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201907/30/WS5d403bada310d83056401d54.html.
[3] WHO (September 2018) https://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/.
[4] Loot box refers to a specific method of monetization whereby a player buys or receives a box containing a randomized selection of virtual items. These can be redeemed later during the play. ‘15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat’ Eurogamer (August 2019) https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-17-15-european-gambling-regulators-unite-to-tackle-loot-box-threat.
[5] Online Harms White Paper (April 2019) https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper.
[6] Immersive and addictive technologies inquiry (September 2019) https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/immersive-technologies/.
[7] ‘Video game addiction: China imposes gaming curfew for minors’ BBC (November 2019) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50315960.
[8] The Chinese tech giant dominates not only the domestic market, but already owns stakes in Epic Games (Fortnite), Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed), Activision-Blizzard (Call of Duty), and Riot Games (League of Legend's), among others.
[9] ‘The Future Computed: Artificial Intelligence and its role in society’ Microsoft (2018) https://3er1viui9wo30pkxh1v2nh4w-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Future-Computed_2.8.18.pdf
[10] ‘Tencent recently implemented facial recognition software to verify the ages of the people playing its games in China’ Business Insider (December 2019) https://www.businessinsider.com/china-facial-recognition-video-games-2018-12?r=US&IR=T.
[11] ‘Kids are pretending to be their grandads to outsmart Tencent’s facial recognition system’ TechInAsia (December 2019) https://www.techinasia.com/kids-pretending-grandads-outsmart-tencent-facial-recognition
[12] Cybersecurity Law Update Lexology (November 2019) https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5fd25c1e-2108-4bea-a473-90be786be21d
[13] ‘China’s social credit system explained’ Wired (June 2019) https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained.
[14] ‘Evaluation of Regulatory Tools for Enforcing Online Gambling Rules and Channelling Demand towards Controlled Offers’ https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/evaluation-regulatory-tools-enforcing-online-gambling-rules-and-channelling-demand-towards-1_en.
[15] Andrew Murray Information Technology Law (4th ed, OUP 2019)