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Eggy Party, a mobile game in China that requires players over 70 years old to submit to a facial recognition scan before they can begin playing, had to make a public statement clarifying that it is not discriminating against the elderly, but simply trying to comply with Chinese anti-addiction regulations for minors.
“We have recently received feedback from some players that they are ‘unable to use senior identity documents to create player accounts,’” NetEase, the company that owns Eggy Party, said in a statement posted to its official Weibo account, translated by 404 Media. “They believe that this leads to ‘discrimination against seniors.’ We would like to take this opportunity to clarify that Eggy Party does not prohibit seniors from registering. For players over 70 years old, facial recognition verification will be required while creating a player account. After facial verification is complete, players can log in and experience the game as usual.”
NetEase’s statement goes on to say that it values its senior players, but that it had “discovered many cases of ‘minors impersonating seniors in games’ during face [recognition]. To combat youth game addiction, we have taken the decision to implement mandatory face verification when registering senior users. While this may indeed affect the player experience of our senior users, it is necessary after careful consideration.”