Fortnite gets new parental controls to stop kids from playing past their bedtime
Epic Games has introduced new time limit controls in Fortnite, allowing parents to restrict their child's playtime.
The studio announced the changes in a new blog post today, confirming that the new tools apply to both the popular battle royale game and Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
According to the new safety guidelines page, with 'Time Limit Controls', parents will have the ability to limit the total amount of time their child can play per day. They can also choose specific time windows when their child can play each day, and set time limits within that window.
After setting a time limit, kids will start seeing in-game banners notifying them when they have 30 minutes left in Fortnite or the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
"Once your child reaches their limit, they will not be able to use Fortnite or UEFN until the next day or until a new window begins, unless you choose to add more time," Epic Games explained.
Parents can also grant extra playtime with the 'Request for More Time' setting. When the setting is on, the player can request more time, but if it's turned off, they can't.
"If you have allowed your child to request more time, and they have 30 minutes or less left in their window, your child can request more time from within Fortnite," the developer continued.
An email will be sent from Epic Games to parents with a link where they can add more time for that day, even if requests are disabled, but the additional time must be added through Fortnite's main menu settings.
Epic has also added 'Time Reports', allowing parents to see how much time their child spends in the game, as well as 'Time Reports Email', which will send a weekly email to parents with a report summarizing their child’s time spent getting victory royales.
Time Limit Controls are now accessible across all consoles and devices, including PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. As long as a player is using the same account across devices, the time limit will be enforced, no matter where the child plays.
