Now parents are told: keep your children away from violent Fortnite video game

CHILDREN’s groups are warning parents that youngsters’ education is being damaged by the violent video game Fortnite.

Ministers may be forced to take urgent steps to prevent pupils flouting age restrictions on the game.

Teachers say children younger than Fortnite’s supposed age limit of 12 are becoming obsessed with the game, affecting their concentration in school.

And parents report how it turns normally placid children into belligerent thugs obsessed with guns and killing.

Cybersafe scotland, which works with schools to help protect children from online exploitation, warned last month against allowing young children unsupervised access to Fortnite.

It said: ‘Children using the game can be contacted by anyone while they are using it. You can’t disable text chat and so you cannot stop other users contacting your child while they are playing.’

The Mail has found schools across the country pleading with parents to stop children spending their days glued to the game.

In an email to parents, head Jemma Garside, who runs a primary school in stoke-on-Trent, staffordshire, wrote: ‘Discussions around this game are being brought... into the classroom which is distracting children from their learning.’

Another school in Bristol said pupils as young as seven were playing. A post on the school’s website said: ‘We’ve heard some of our children, including in Year 3, are playing a game online called Fortnite... if your child is playing this game talk to them and make sure you know what they are doing.’

It comes as MPs are considering introducing laws which could see companies fined for failing to police age restrictions. Last night, Culture secretary Matt Hancock’s Parliamentary Private secretary Nigel Huddleston said he was ‘horrified’ to hear stories of children becoming addicted to the game.

The MP for Mid Worcestershire admitted friends of his 12-year-old son spoke of ‘nothing else’, although his own child does not play. He said: ‘The Government is going to be making it increasingly difficult for children to see inappropriate content.’

Recent cases highlighted the game’s ‘addictive nature’ and ‘the extent to which it quickly impacts behaviour’, he added.

During a game of Fortnite, players battle to survive on an island against strangers online – fighting and killing each other until one only person is left, hunting for weapons along the way. It was given an age rating of 12 for ‘frequent scenes of mild violence’.

On sunday, it emerged a girl aged only nine was in rehab after becoming so addicted that she would wet herself rather than leave the screen.

Mr Huddleston described the situation as ‘horrendous’. He warned that developers of such games must take responsibility for the potential impact of addictive content.

Concerned parents have taken to forums such as Mumsnet to vent their fears.

One mother wrote of her primary-age son: ‘He saw a poster with a man and child in a swimming pool... and commented it would be a perfect shot to blow their heads off.’

Fortnite’s creators could not be reached for comment.

‘Quickly impacts behaviour’