REVIEW: FORTNITE

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The Fortnite platform is not just one game, but a platform that gives access to various types of games. These can include pure racing games, mazes, horror games, role-playing games, and much more.

Some of these may contain blood, cartoon violence, and horror elements, but there are also mini-games without violence that are suitable for younger children. The different games are labeled with recommended age ratings from PEGI, ranging from 3, 7, and 12 years.

There’s a lot of pressure to spend real money on season passes, skins, dances, and more.

Set up parental controls to limit friend requests, chat, games with high age ratings, and to control how visible children are online.

Be aware that there can be both good and bad language use in online games.

The Fortnite platform can be downloaded for free. You can also purchase content for real money.

The platform is social as you can play different games together with or against friends. It’s also possible to participate in competitions on the platform that offer cash prizes. Some of these have age restrictions for who can participate in the competitions. Examples of different games within the Fortnite platform include:

• Save the World: Story mode where you fight alone or with friends against zombies
• Creative: Create your own island. Build whatever you want. Make mini-games. Place vehicles, planes, and more. Invite friends to your island and play together.
• Fortnite: Battle Royale: Teams of one/two/three/four or many fight against each other until one or one team remains as the winner. Everyone plays on a massive island and must find resources and weapons to win against the others.
• Ranked: Competitive mode where you fight to get a better ranking in a table.
• LEGO Fortnite: Minecraft-inspired game where you collect resources and build bases with LEGO bricks.

Suitability

The Fortnite platform is labeled with «parental guidance» by PEGI. You can still play «classic» Fortnite: Battle Royale where many fight against each other with firearms. Here, the age rating is still 12 years as before.

«Parental guidance» means that the Fortnite platform has a wide range of content. Parents are therefore advised to guide their children and familiarize themselves with the parental settings.

The content changes constantly.

You must have an Epic Games account to access the platform. Children who state an account age under 13 get a child account. Parents must consent to account creation on behalf of the children.

Chat risks

The game contains chat options (voice and text). There can be an unpleasant tone, arguing, swearing, and taunts in the game. It’s possible to report other players who behave badly. The game has settings to mute/turn off text and voice chat for all or individual people. There’s also a filter here against foul language (text – doesn’t remove everything).

You can also hide your game name from others and automatically refuse new friend requests. Some Fortnite games may have an age rating of 7 years, but still contain shooting, violence, and horror elements. The system for setting age limits on games on the Fortnite platform is therefore not foolproof.

Parental controls

You can set up parental controls via the Epic Games system or within the Fortnite platform. You can then set up a six-digit code that locks various settings. These can be found by going to settings/menu in the game.

Note that the settings made within the Fortnite platform do not limit chat/communication on the game console and computer programs outside the platform.

It’s also wise to turn on two-factor authentication. This prevents others from hijacking children’s accounts, even if they know the child’s username and password. To log in to the Fortnite platform on a game console/computer other than the one usually used, you must enter a unique code that is sent by email or SMS.

Two-factor authentication is turned on inside the Epic Games account page.

Other settings

Inside the audio menu in settings, you can make some changes:

• Voice method – push to talk. Requires pressing a microphone button to talk, so the microphone is not always on.
• Voice chat – turn off chat completely, or choose who can hear the children when they chat with voice chat.
• Voice reporting – on or off whether it should be possible to report something that has been said in voice chat. A recording of chat is then sent to Epic Games for assessment.

Inside account and privacy, you can choose:

• Language filter on / off.
• Who children can receive friend invitations from all / friends of friends / no one.
• Whether the child can receive gifts or not from others.
• Who can join the children’s group (party).
• Who can see the children’s username (replace the username with «player» for other players).