With the rise of any trend among young people, there will always be an adult to tell the world how terrible it is. All you have to do is have watched “Today”, “60 minutes” or “Breakfast” in the past few weeks to know that the current target is Epic Games’ extremely successful title “Fortnite“.
And, as with any fear mongering against fun, the schools seem to have jumped on the “Ban Fortnite” bandwagon.
The email
Today, we had an anonymous source forward us an email from a Sydney-based school. The email warned parents that they should not allow their Year 5 students to play the game. This is what the email said:
Let’s break this down
Firstly, Fortnite is a title: it should be capitalised. But, to the main point, messaging CAN be blocked and the issue of profanity in-game can also be addressed.
In fact, the website “Common Sense Media” the school referenced actually gives great instructions on how to disable voice chat:
How do you turn off voice chat in Fortnite: Battle Royale?
Open the Settings menu in the top right of the main Fortnite page by selecting the three bars, then the cog icon. Choose the Audio tab at the top of the screen. From there, you can adjust several audio features, including voice chat. Turn the setting from on to off by tapping the arrows.”
-CommonSenseMedia.org
Ban Fortnite? Let’s be real
As a parent, I completely agree that we should be the ones that protect our kids, and I do believe that this email had the right intentions. However, I think we as parents shouldn’t be taking all our kids fun away, rather educating ourselves on their interests and our kids on how to moderate themselves in game.
Related
For a detailed look into video game addiction and science check out Nate Bramleys article here.
