Fortnite developer Epic Games has announced it is working with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to add age ratings to all of its creations next month.
On October 3, Epic announced its partnership with the IARC, revealing that, from November 14, Fortnite will feature internationally-recognized age and content ratings for all first and third-party playable content. What this means is that anything published in the battle royale game will be required to have an IARC-assigned rating. In its announcement, Epic states that the implementation of the new rules is "a critical step toward building a metaverse that is safe and fun for everyone."
Epic has also revealed how the new system will work. According to the announcement, when a creator wants to publish their island in Fortnite, they will have to fill out the IARC content rating questionnaire before they submit their content to Epic moderators for review and eventual publishing.
Once the questionnaire has been filled out, creators will receive an age-based IARC rating for the content on their island as well as a region-specific rating from "IARC-participating rating authorities." As each region will have different "content sensitivities", the IARC will reportedly take trusted guidance from other rating boards across the globe - including the ESRB (North America), PEGI (Europe), ACB (Australia), USK (Germany), and more.
The ratings assigned to the content will apparently be automatically applied and "prominently displayed" prior to accessing the island in question. The developer has also noted that "participating rating authorities may modify one or more of the ratings assigned based on their own review of the experience once it’s been published."
As well as this content rating system, Fortnite will also be getting new parental controls, which will also go live on November 14. Due to the new IARC ratings, parents will soon be able to set content age rating limits in the Parental Controls menu of the game. This will block content of a certain age rating from appearing for the player in question. Elsewhere, Fortnite will soon give the option to turn on/off the ability for players to design their own games in Creative Mode.
The new rating system will be available for creators in the Creator Portal starting from October 16, giving players plenty of time to get their islands rated. It's important to note that "unrated islands will be delisted" from that same November 14 date.
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