Fortnite parental controls: a practical setup guide

Fortnite is a battle-royale shooter that also functions as a social space. Children play matches, but they also hang out in the lobby, add friends, use voice chat and spend money on in-game items. Most of the controls that matter are not inside Fortnite itself - they sit on the Epic Games account that Fortnite runs on.

Start with the right Epic Games account type

An adult Epic account can set its own restrictions. A child Epic account is linked to a parent account, which means you approve changes and can enforce limits from your own dashboard. If your child set up their own account and entered an adult age, the parental controls below can be changed or removed by the child. Creating a child account, or updating the date of birth through Epic support, is the single most important step.

Set the three main parental controls

• Content restrictions: set the maturity rating to the child's age. Fortnite itself is PEGI 12 / ESRB T for Teen.
• Purchase restrictions: require your approval for any spending, or disable purchases entirely.
• Social restrictions: control who can send friend requests, chat, or see the profile.

Chat and voice settings

Fortnite has both text and voice chat. In the Fortnite settings you can turn voice chat off, limit it to friends only, or disable it completely. Text chat can also be restricted. On a child Epic account these settings can be locked from the parent dashboard, which prevents the child from turning them back on without your permission.

Spending: V-Bucks and Fortnite Crew

V-Bucks are the in-game currency used for skins, battle passes and emotes. Fortnite Crew is a monthly subscription that includes a battle pass and a skin. The most reliable way to prevent surprise spending is to remove any stored payment method from the Epic account and require purchase approvals through the parent dashboard. On console, you can also require your own platform password for every transaction.

A five-minute check

• Confirm the Epic account is a child account linked to your parent account.
• Set content, purchase and social restrictions in the Epic parental controls dashboard.
• Turn off or restrict voice and text chat in Fortnite's in-game settings.
• Remove stored payment methods and enable purchase approvals.

If you would like help checking your child's Epic account, console settings and in-game privacy settings in one go, that is exactly what a session covers.