Fortnite bans player with a cryptic message: "Ask your parents for help."

Fortnite is rated T for Teens, which implies that children under the age of 13 cannot play it without the consent of their parents. The verification service is provided to Epic Games by SuperAwesome, a company it bought back in 2020.

A looper recently got their account suspended and an "Ask Your Parents for Help" message popped up with it.

Fortnite bans player with an unusual message (Image via Epic Games)

It's possible that the account will be terminated in a month, and the player's father complained about the same on the game's official subreddit.

The post has been removed by the subreddit's moderator. However, a heated debate on the topic had already begun in the comments.

Some comments from the deleted post on r/FortNiteBR subreddit (Image via Reddit)

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Fortnite's parent verification system explained

Apparently, players under the age of 13 require the consent of their parents/guardians to enjoy Epic Games' Battle Royale game.

The verification system by SuperAwesome checks the credit card details of their parents, the last four digits of their Social Security Number, and other biographical information.

The purpose of this verification system is to stop children from playing Fortnite without the consent of their parents/guardians. The developers do not want children to misrepresent their age or identity and wrongly spend V-Bucks on cosmetics and skins in the item shop

One of the major concerns with the verification steps is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which fines developers for collecting information on children under the age of 13.

All in all, the goal is to improve communication between children under the age of 13, their parents/guardians, and the developers.

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Fortnite players under the age of 13 can get verification requests anytime now

It seems like Epic Games has started taking action against suspected underage accounts that are associated with its popular battle royale game.

It won't be a surprise if thousands of such accounts are detected in the near future, because back in the day, lying about their age online was a piece of cake for children. With a single tick, they could claim to be above the age of 18.

For suspected accounts, Epic Games is sending an e-mail and players are expected to provide the credit card information of their parents and the last four digits of their Social Security Number. The data is then matched with government databases for identification.

If underage players fail to complete the process within a month, their account will be permanently terminated. Many loopers have claimed that such actions are important and justified, while others aren't willing to give their SSN to a private developer like Epic Games.