Epic Games has announced a new suite of Fortnite tools intended to protect younger players from inappropriate content and player conduct.
The first of these, the new Voice Reporting feature, continuously records the last five minutes of voice chat audio when a new setting is switched on.
If a player submits a report to Epic, those five minutes will be submitted as evidence for moderators to review.
If you’re over 18, you can turn off Voice Reporting, but only for parties formed among friends in which all players have switched the setting off.
If voice chats contain players recruited through Looking for Party, or at least one player with the Voice Reporting setting on, then Voice Reporting will record all players in the chat.
Similarly, if a player is under 18, Voice Reporting is always on and can’t be turned off. You can, however, still switch off Voice Chat or mute yourself if you don’t want to be recorded.
Epic also says it doesn’t have any way of accessing voice chat audio unless a report is sent, and that clips will be deleted after fourteen days or the duration of a sanction.
The second new feature Epic is introducing to Fortnite is being added alongside the new island age ratings.
Age ratings for cosmetics are being introduced within islands, so that if a player wears a cosmetic that is inappropriate for a certain island’s age rating, that cosmetic will be changed to something that fits within the island’s parameters.
Epic is keen to stress that only “a small portion” of its cosmetics aren’t compatible with E or E10+ ratings, or the equivalent in your region.
If you’re a parent and you don’t want your child to interact with Fortnite Creative or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, then you can turn that setting off entirely within your Epic Account’s Parental Controls.
Of course, that does mean you might not get to see stuff like the new Game Awards Fortnite island, or the official Deliver Us the Moon map.
