Should I ban fortnite in my household?

Sho

Sho

Soldato
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My 10 year old son was/is addicted to this game. It got worse over the summer holidays, as he would stay in all day and just play fortnite all day with unnecessary arguments with his friends and Reletetives.


The day he went back in school back in September I confiscated his ps4 and he has not seen it since.
He wasn't very happy when he came back from school. But, I'm so happy I did. As he has changed completely. Dosnt even look/mention for it now.
Plus, I don't let him use his amazon hd10 tablet during the week, weekend only. So he's under control.


Juat get rid of the console for a long period of time and you will see a different child. Trust me.
 
Soldato
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My Mrs two play this game (7 and 9) and it brings out the worst in them.

It's 100% had a negative effect on their behaviour since they started playing it. We have tantrums, shouting at us, hitting each other, none of which they used to do. Maybe it's just coincidence and they're going through a little **** phase but I'm not convinced.

It's a difficult one because it's how they socialise with friends most of the time but we're really considering a ban on it, at the very least restricting their time on it.
 
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Soldato
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My plan is for my son (who admittedly is only 11 months atm) and I to play games together. I have a games room, so that will be the consoles/computers are, not in our bedrooms. I know not everyone has that luxury. I just feel like if he associates that time as something we do together, it may help with some of the issues I had as a teenager.

As for the V bucks thing, really only you can say. Try and talk about it when it's not an argument.
 
Tea Drinker
Don
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My missus has flat out said no xbox or playstation and any TVs in the kids rooms. Whilst I didn't agree with her at first it's the right decision, it's clear the gormless result of hours spent staring at a screen and the emotions involved. There was a radio segment on it last year where they said a child will fall one grade down for every hour played per day from the average, not from an A but from the average.

https://www.ncb.org.uk/sites/default/files/field/attachment/22 ict_me.pdf

Social networking and gaming were identified by parents/carers and teachers as activities that could most negatively impact on young people’s attainment. Findings from this research confirm a link between extent of gaming and GCSE attainment, e.g. only two-fifths (41%) of pupils who reported using a portable games player a couple of times a day achieved 5A*-C GCSE grades compared to over three-quarters (77%) of those who reported rarely using one. No relationship was observed in terms of social networking.

My kids are now into other things, my daughter (10) is art and design crazy and my son (8) would rather be at the gym (BJJ) or out on his bike or skateboard. They seem to have accepted they aren't going to be involved.
 
Soldato
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There was a video a few days back of a father cutting his sons PS4 in half with a chainsaw as he's found that playing Fortnite had turned his son into a "fornicating spherical door handle".
Guess a lot of parents think Fortnite is great as it keeps the kids occupied etc but the whole peer pressure thing to spend money on new skins is pretty bad!
 
Soldato
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Somewhere in Asia
My plan is for my son (who admittedly is only 11 months atm) and I to play games together. I have a games room, so that will be the consoles/computers are, not in our bedrooms. I know not everyone has that luxury. I just feel like if he associates that time as something we do together, it may help with some of the issues I had as a teenager.

As for the V bucks thing, really only you can say. Try and talk about it when it's not an argument.

I do the same thing with my son. We started on the lego games on my PC when he was about 4 to 5.

Then instead of selling some of my old PC components, I just built him his own rig about 2 years ago.

A 9 year old with a 980ti. and a 29 inch Ultrawide....pretty decent I think.

Now we game together in separate rooms but with the headphones on a discord channel we set up. Good times.
 
Soldato
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Nice try troll but this is called a discussion forum for a reason, if you can't discuss things like an adult, maybe you should go back to school
the fact you have to raise this as a discussion rather than dealing w/ it yourself verifies my point. shame they didn't teach parenting in school when you went eh? "discuss things like an adult"? Obviously you're incapable of doing this w/ your own kids, lmao.
 
Associate
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the fact you have to raise this as a discussion rather than dealing w/ it yourself verifies my point. shame they didn't teach parenting in school when you went eh? "discuss things like an adult"? Obviously you're incapable of doing this w/ your own kids, lmao.

Obviously, I guess the same applies to the countless other people who have started threads on this forum. In fact why do forums exist all together as I stand there waiting on baited breath for the next response to help me make the decision with my child.

Please hurry up as I don't know what to do.

It's called gauging opinions, now can you please finish your homework and return to the playground
 
Associate
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My Son (10) tried Fortnite and got frustrated cos he was crap at it, hasn't bothered playing since lol

Been playing for years with him on the consoles, but I tend to play my own games lately (RDR2 for one).

Currently building him his 1st desktop PC for Xmas using components from my old build, will be great having both of us on PC's

I'll get him on the FPS soon and team up! lol
 
Soldato
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the fact you have to raise this as a discussion rather than dealing w/ it yourself verifies my point. shame they didn't teach parenting in school when you went eh? "discuss things like an adult"? Obviously you're incapable of doing this w/ your own kids, lmao.

Clearly you don't have kids - nothing wrong with asking how other people would approach a situation.
 
Tea Drinker
Don
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the fact you have to raise this as a discussion rather than dealing w/ it yourself verifies my point. shame they didn't teach parenting in school when you went eh? "discuss things like an adult"? Obviously you're incapable of doing this w/ your own kids, lmao.

Easy please. It's just a question put the pitchfork away :)
 
Associate
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4 weeks ago we tried a weeks ban, but this is how quickly behaviour has returned back to the way it was so there has to be consequences of some kind.

He seems fine with other games it just seems that Fortnite seems to have the worst effect emotionally speaking
 
Soldato
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We very rarely so in game purchases. Any they have had have been warned through household chores.

He gets upset because people at school taunt him for being bad at it and then moans that he should have more time in game.

We say you can have up to an hour (on weeknights) as long as chores are done. Quite often he only gets them finished late which means it starts to approach bedtime close to when he can start and then kicks off when he can't have his full hour.

So it's not all completely Fortnite related but it is upsetting him with peers at school

Instead of saying he can have an hour time allowance after his chores make it so there's a fixed cut-off time

For example tell him he can have until 8:30 PM once homework/food/chores have been completed.
That way him not having long on the game is on him and not you "going against your word" if he delays in completing the said tasks. In fact completing them (to a satisfactory standard of your judgement) early rewards him with extra time.

How are his grades at school? If they could be improved then you could try an improvement reward system.

Speak to his school and find out which subjects he's good at and the ones he struggles with. Small rewards if he improves a subject he's good at, larger reward if he improves a struggling subject. Total the rewards at the end of the month

However work it as a gain/loss model

Example he earns a small reward (£5) and a big reward (£15).

His "account balance" is £20. However if he fails a test or drops a grade then he loses £10 per subject.

He starts each month with the last month's balance carried so if he's in negative balance he has to work harder to get better grades and get him into the pluses.

If there's an item he wants to buy and he can't earn enough in a single month it teaches him about saving.
 
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