AIBU to think that Fortnite is too violent for a 7 year old?

[Celestia26]

I have a son aged 7, who has a few classmates who play Fortnite quite alot.

He's started talking about it, but because it contains guns and shooting I have said he can't play it.

AIBU? I haven't played it myself, so I'm just judging it on what I've heard.

My 9 year old plays it. Usually for about half an hour. He has a go then I do. It's not something he does alone. He does this maybe once or twice a week.

I dont mind it. Hasnt changed his behaviour and he turns it off when asked.

No I dont think its particularly violent. Its akin to Mario cart for me. And he certainly understand what death is in the real world compared to a video game death.

But then again I do let him watch marvel moves which are usually at least a 12A. I watch them first. I didnt let my older daughter watch avengers assemble at the cinema as I knew the hulk would terrify her.

Watching marvel movies didnt make him violent or less able to understand death either.

Fortnite is terrible! My oldest son has night terrors because of it! And my youngest shot his younger sister with a nurf “blaster”. I don’t understand why anyone would play it! It melts your brain and makes you dumb!!

There's the strangest mix of reactions on this thread!! Fortnite is violent, although they do just disappear, you can shoot or hack them to death with an axe. I think the rating is more for the nature of how it can affect children, kids become agitated, entranced and if they can't handle it, moody and aggressive. Fortnite was the death of our house. We started playing a few years ago and our quiet, smiley eldest (and to a lesser extemt 10yo) became a cursing, moody teen each time he played. He'd bounce around screaming at the tv. People will talk about limiting it etc but our rule was always one game then pass it on and it still had that effect on each of the kids that played. Also we've had lovely instances of hearing kids say things like 'die, f*#ker' as they trapped ds' avatar and an adult ask who he was playing with to a 5 yo thst was playing at the same time as ds. There has also been fun, and me and dh have played, plus I've listened in to ds' friends and him playing and they dont get as het up as him (he has no mic, they do) but in general it's been taken away as much as it's been played. I'd say hold off as long as possible

My 8 and 11 year old played it for about 3 months then got bored. It’s a shit game. The younger one likes the merch though. I don’t know any kids in high school that play it, it’s a very babyish game

Oh and they’ve never had behaviour changes, if they had I’d have flung the Xbox’s out the window! They are time limited on them and can’t just randomly put them on

Maybe you should parent your child better, you disgraceful mum!

All right Karen cool it it's a videogame

Oh this has come back again.... 😴

Let your kid or don’t let them. It’s not like COD/GTA etc just because a parent will let their child play Fortnite doesn’t mean they would let them on COD/GTA either.

We are big gamers in our house and do make some exceptions to age ratings. For example, Zelda Breath Of the Wild is a 12 but really I think is fine for some younger children. However, I let my son download fortnight to see what it is like (he is 10) and within a few minutes had turned it off and uninstalled because there was so much swearing in the chat.

It's horribly addictive and in my experience of my older DS playing it, was a terrible impact on behaviour.
There's no way my DS7 is playing it. And I unashamedly totally judge parents who allow it for young children

Well my son played aged 9 back when this thread was started and is now 11 and rarely plays it anymore. Comes off when asked for any game, isn’t violent at all and was in above expectations for all his school stuff prior to lock down so 🤷🏻‍♀️ His gone back to Minecraft and Roblox as Fortnite is now full of the new 7/8/9 year old “noobs”.