Video game maker Epic Games is introducing two new parental controls for its popular games Fortnite and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to help parents and guardians monitor how much time their children spend gaming.
The two new parental controls introduced are Time Limit Controls and Time Reports, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Parents will now see an option to set up time limits for their child’s account in the parental controls section in the Fortnite main menu, or on the Epic Account portal on the web,” the video game maker said.
The feature will help parents limit the amount of time their child can play per day and choose specific playing time windows and set time limits within that window. They also have the option to choose whether to allow their child to request more time as they approach the end of their time limit.
If a time limit has been set, the child will begin seeing in-game notifications when they have 30 minutes left.
“Once the 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 a parent chooses to grant more time,” the company said.
The feature works across consoles and devices and as long as the child is using the same account the time limit parents set will be in effect.
Epic Games has faced backlash in recent years after parents complained and sued the video game maker saying the game is designed to be addictive.
“It is a tiny step in the right direction,” Elaine Uskoski, a video gaming addiction author, speaker and coach, said in an interview with CBC News.
“The problem is children are very clever and they find ways around these parental controls.”
Parents who opt into Time Reports can see a daily breakdown of time spent in Fortnite and UEFN and whether they have granted extra time for their child.
The company already offers existing parental controls that let people choose how their child interacts with others across Epic’s games and experiences and manage access to social features, including voice and text chat and purchasing permissions.
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“We’re not really addressing the problem, which is that the video games themselves are addictive, and they’re designed to be addictive, and there are particular children that are at risk,” Uskoski said.
Last year, a Vancouver parent launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against the makers of Fortnite, saying the popular video game was designed to be “as addictive as possible” for children.
A Montreal legal firm had requested authorization to launch a class-action lawsuit against Fortnite in 2019, on behalf of the parents of two minors, likening the effect of the game to cocaine.
A Canadian study released in 2020 showed six to 11 per cent of gamers wind up with problems from excessive video gaming, such as prioritizing game time over school or work. Modern technologies such as video games are designed to be addictive, which in turn, provides revenue for the video game manufacturer, the study said. With advances in technology, today’s video games are far more addictive than video games just a decade or two ago.
The study went on to say that modern technology has been designed to give our brains that dopamine and adrenaline that they crave, without any effort and with much less risk.
