It appears that the success of Fornite has started to become concerning for teachers. In Gloucestershire multiple primary schools have written letters to the parents of their students.
In those letters, teachers claimed that the game is responsible for the aggressiveness of young children. The Widden Primary School even had daily sessions. During those sessions, they discussed the dangers of Fornite. The deputy head at the school, Debbie Innes, shared their concerns:
Younger children find it difficult to distinguish between the game and real life. They are exposed to the aggression and violence.
We have had a number children for whom their behaviour has deteriorated as a result of what seems to be playing Fortnite. So aggressive behaviour and language which they have heard online.
Because children play these games with headphones on there is always the possibility they are connected to people – adults play this game as well – and the language that they use when they get killed can be quite colourful.
Is Fortnite a real threat?
It has become obvious that children start to become addicted when it comes to the popular game. However, is Fornite to blame? Fortnite is definitely not the most violent game out there. It also adopts a cartoonish style compared to the realistic gameplay of PUBG, for example.
In addition to that, Fortnite is rated 12 plus. Therefore, younger children playing the game should be the responsibility of their parents. It is hard to believe that Fornite is truly dangerous.
Parents should not focus on a single game. Instead, it is important to educate children about the effects of video games. They should be allowed to play them for a limited number of hours and parents should discuss with their young ones about the distinction between reality and video games.
Fortnite is an entertaining pastime, and it should not be regarded as the “big evil”. Instead, parents should review their children’s relation to video games and make sure that kids have other (constructive) hobbies as well.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
