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If you haven’t heard about Fortnite, you must either be living under a rock, or you don’t have an upper elementary or middle school aged child. LOL! Fortnite is the hottest new video game on the market, kids and tweens everywhere are playing it, including mine! Parents are trying to quickly research and decide if their children are old enough to play. They’re also wondering if the content is appropriate for their child. Here’s a few cliffnotes on the game, to help you decide if your child is old enough to play Fortnite.
What is Fortnite?
Fortnite, published by Epic Games, is a battle game that comes in two different variations. Fortnite Battle Royale is available on PS4, XboxOne, PC, and Mac. The full game version costs $40 to $60, depending on your choice of standard or deluxe, and includes the popular Battle Royale, plus a stand alone mission based game.
In the more popular & free-to-play Fortnite Battle Royale, 100 players are dropped out of a floating “battle bus” onto a giant map with various different areas. Players gather weapons and materials and participate in a last man standing battle. Players try to eliminate the competition while creating shelters and finding materials as they explore buildings. And they dance! There’s lots of dancing taking place in Fortnite! It also offers a team mode that lets players choose a small team of players to collaborate with, as they try to survive against other teams in the game.
What Are the Ratings on the Game?
The overall rating for this game is T for Teen, due to violence. The popular review and rating site, Common Sense Media, has an expert age rating of 13+, a parent rating of 11+, and a kids rating of 10+. (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/fortnite/user-reviews/adult) Our eleven year old son plays Fortnite. We monitor his game time, and he plays Fortnite on the tv in our living room. We can see and hear everything taking place in the game.
How Violent is the Game?
As the main idea of the game is to be the last man to survive the game, there is naturally quite a bit of violence in the game. Players use a variety of weapons to pick off the competition, from battle axes to assault weapons and everything in between. There is no blood or gore shown in the game, and the graphics are very cartoon-ish, rather than realistic.
Are There Other Concerns?
Beyond the level of violence, parents may also be concerned about the multiplayer features of the game. With this feature, that is necessary to play the game, voice and text chat may be enabled which could expose younger players to inappropriate conversations, mature language and contact with strangers. On some systems, voice chat can be bypassed or limited to “friends only” within the settings. Parents worried about this feature should change the settings and parental controls of their system accordingly.
The Bottom Line
Deciding if your child is old enough to play Fortnite is a very personal choice. Take into consideration their maturity level and how easily they can distinguish fantasy from reality. If you are comfortable with them playing a survival game that involves shooting other players, and feel that they are mature enough to handle the described violence, then it should be fine for them to play. The bigger issue for many is the access to strangers within the games servers. Because of this contact, you may want to hold off allowing younger children to play or at the very least, supervise closely.
*photo credit: Fortnite character photo at top of page found on Fortnite twitter page.
