Why Is Fortnite Asking For Your Birthday?
Fortnite asking for your birthday is pretty random, but it's quite a necessary tool to help kids and their families enjoy the game. Here's why Epic Games is asking for your birthday when you start up the game.
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Fortnite has taken over the world with millions upon millions of players logging in daily. There are many challenges to complete, but you may be confused by the game asking for your birthday. Here's exactly why Epic Games is asking for this information.
- Did you know you can hide in a giant snowball this season in Fortnite?
Why Is My Birthday Needed For Fortnite?
When you start up the game after December 2022, Fortnite will ask you for your birthday up front. It's quite odd as the developer Epic Games has never asked for this before. Thankfully, it's a way to protect children rather than being an obstruction of your privacy. Just make sure the date you enter is over 13 years old as there may come problems after if not.
Those who are 13 years old and younger have some features disabled when they login to protect them. After this update, they will become a cabined account. If they ever need to buy items from the shop or trade with others in Rocket League, parental consent is needed for them to perform these actions. There is also no voice chat to speak of in-game. They will instead have to use a service like Discord to talk to their friends.
The cabined account system is likely to settle legal issues that Epic Games has faced over the past few years. It's still strange we're seeing mature franchises like Doom and potentially Die Hard in Fortnite, despite the game mostly appealing to younger audiences.
- The Ex-Calibur Rifle is pretty powerful in Fortnite. How does it rank for you?
What Is A Cabined Account In Fortnite?
A Cabined Account prevents access to features to protect kids and their families from digital purchases and other players online. Epic Games claims the account will still have "full access to previously purchased or earned content in-game, but won’t be able to access certain content or features until their parent or guardian provides consent" on an official FAQ.
All of these features a regular account has access to can't be used on a cabined version:
- Communicating with other players using voice chat or free text chat
- Purchasing items with money
- Downloading games that are not owned by Epic
- Recommendations based on past activity
- Email marketing or push notifications
- Trades in Rocket League
- Sign in with Epic, including linking accounts to certain external services, such as social media websites or video streaming applications
- Custom display names
- SMS-based two-factor authentication
This also means that everyone's display name will be hidden, which may be a huge pain to kids who play Fortnite and other Epic games like Fall Guys and Rocket League.
Once the parental email has been given, it is up to the parents as to what features can be unlocked. They are encouraged to alter the Parental Controls to change exactly what their kids can do like voice or text chat.
About The Author
Chris Penwell
Chris Penwell is an experienced video games journalist with a Bachelor in Communications. He loves to play narrative-focused games like Kingdom Hearts and Beyond Good & Evil.
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