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What kind of parental controls does Fortnite have?
Fortnite is a worldwide gaming phenomenon, but its free-for-all, multiplayer, online nature can make it unsuitable for younger gamers. Thankfully, you can keep Fortnite safe for kids with the right information…
What age rating is Fortnite?
Even though it is essentially a game about killing other people in last-man-standing, ‘battle royale’ contests of 100 online players – using shotguns, axes, sniper rifles and other sillier things, like the Boogie Bomb – there is no on-screen gore and the violence is never too excessive or offensive.
However, Epic Games’ Fortnite still has a PEGI (Pan European Game Information) rating of 12 thanks to “frequent scenes of mild violence”. However, this rating only takes into account the game’s content and doesn’t really consider any offensive or excessive behaviour from its participants via in-game voice or on-screen text chat.
Where to begin with parental controls
Parents can control a number of things kids see and do when playing Fortnite to keep them safe and protected. You can set time limits, police conversations, get playtime reports, block and mute others and generally tailor the game to your specifications.
For the Fortnite-uninitiated, it’s probably worth doing some research on the online game itself and how it plays before you decide which way you should go with regard to Fortnite Parental Controls..
The more you know about the game and how your child uses it, the more you will understand what needs to be monitored and how. You’ll be able to relate to them a lot easier too, which helps during negotiations.
Let’s break it down a bit more clearly…
Once you have set up Fortnite Parental Controls, it’s paramount that you set a PIN code. This PIN will be required to make any further changes to your settings once they have been applied.
Launch Fortnite on your platform of choice and from the lobby open the menu feature in the upper-right of the screen and select ‘Parental Controls’. Then confirm the email address linked to the account and set your unique six-digit PIN. Make sure you record your Fortnite PIN somewhere safe.
In different modes of the game – ‘Fortnite Battle Royale’ and ‘Fortnite Save The World’ – players can chat with their teammates in the lobby, on the home page or during the contest. By turning ‘Filter Mature Language’ on, bad language will be replaced with heart symbols on the screen.
Friend requests are automatically set to ‘Public’ by default. In this menu you can change that to ‘Friends’ or ‘Private’. If you’re worried about your child receiving friend requests from strangers, you should change this.
Don’t want your child to be able to take part in or hear the voice chat during a game? Turn it off in the ‘Voice Chat’ menu.
Don’t want your child to be able to text other players during a game? Turn it off in the ‘Show Text Chat’ menu.
Eliminated players’ names are displayed on screen during a game and can be traced. If you want to replace your child’s account name with simply ‘Player’, turn this functionality on.
Eliminated players’ names are displayed on screen during a game and can be traced. If you don’t want your child to see anyone’s account name on this list, just the word ‘Player’, you can turn this functionality on.
If your child is experiencing inappropriate behaviour from other users you can ‘Block’ them, ‘Unfriend’ them and ‘Report’ them using a feedback form within the game.
Depending on which platform you are playing the game on, there are options to control Fortnite time limits, specifically when or how long your child’s play time is. Excessive screen time isn’t good for our health, so this is well worth keeping an eye on.
Depending on which console, desktop or mobile device your child is playing Fortnite on, there are also options for parents to control if and how much your child can purchase. As most parents can appreciate, app purchases can get out of hand very quickly.
Monitoring your child’s screen time? Fortnite will deliver you a ‘Weekly Playtime Report’ straight to your email address every week.
