Fortnite ‘addiction’ leaving pupils bleary-eyed in class after all-night binges sparking calls for lessons in online safety
PRIMARY school head teachers have warned parents to keep their kids away from violent video game Fortnite after they began turning up for school bleary-eyed following all-night gaming sessions.
Since it launched last July, the shoot-em-up has gripped millions of children across the country and been downloaded more than 40million times.
Teachers say they are finding many of its users are younger than its 12-year age limit.
They are now demanding curriculum time to teach healthy online use, as part of Personal Social Health and Economic Education.
National Association of Head Teachers chief Nick Brook said: “To help young people navigate challenges of the digital age, we’d like protected curriculum space.
“Recent reports of problems with online gaming only reinforces the need to educate children on safe and healthy use of online resources.”
Another school in Bristol reported children as young as seven playing the game.
A post on its 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.”
Yesterday, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock’s Parliamentary Private Secretary Nigel Huddleston said he was ‘horrified’ to hear stories of children becoming addicted to the game.
He said: ‘The Government is going to be making it increasingly difficult for children to see inappropriate content.’
The game’s action takes place on an island where players battle against each other online using an array of weapons to be the last person standing.
It has been endorsed by top sport and music celebs — but experts fear it is leading to record levels of online addiction.
Game plan: What is Fortnite and why is it so popular?
FORTNITE: Battle Royale is a version of Fortnite, a video game released by Epic Games in July 2017.
The online game is set in an post-apocalyptic world, based around a battle for survival.
Fortnite offers two distinct modes: player versus environment, 'Save the World' and the more recent player versus player game Battle Royale.
The game starts with 100 players leaping out of a plane on to a small island, fighting each other until no one is left.
Fortnite has proved a massive hit with millions of kids.
The game is free and kids can team up with a friend, a group of friends or compete as a duo or squad.
Matches can last up to 20 minutes.
Though it's a multiplayer shooter, no graphic violence is depicted.
It comes as a nine-year-old girl is in rehab after getting so addicted to the game she wet herself rather than leave the screen.
The hooked youngster played all night until dawn after her parents had gone to bed — and hit her dad in the face when he confiscated her Xbox.
She kept nodding off at school, began skipping gym and ballet classes and running up £50 bills with Microsoft buying extras.
Her parents eventually put her into therapy — two months after buying her the Xbox — to help wean her off.
Mum Carol, 36, said: "We had no idea of the addictive impact it could have. She became withdrawn, agitated and disturbed from playing up to ten hours a day wetting herself so she didn't have to leave the screen."
And it comes as a teenage boy is set to be diagnosed with an online gaming addiction in what is believed to be the first case of its kind on the NHS.
The 15-year-old has reportedly been off school for a year while spending hundreds of hours on computer game binges in his north London home.
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