spot_img
spot_imgspot_imgspot_imgspot_img

Canada: Parents file lawsuit against Fortnite creators for ‘highly addictive’ game

Published on:

Parents who claim their kids were hooked to the video game called ‘Fortnite’ filed a lawsuit against Fortnite’s creator ‘Epic Games’ in Quebec, Canada, which was approved by a judge in the Canadian Supreme Court.

According to BBC News, three parents complained before Justice Sylvain Lussier in July that their children had stopped eating, sleeping, and taking showers as a result of their apparent dependence on Fortnite.

The decision made by J. Lussier on Wednesday states that the class action lawsuit wasn’t “frivolous or clearly ill-founded”.

In the ruling, J. Lussier said, “The court concludes that there is a serious issue to be argued, supported by sufficient and specific allegations as to the existence of risks or even dangers arising from the use of Fortnite.”

Epic Games, however, claims to have “industry-leading parental controls that empower parents to oversee their child’s digital experience.”

The company said, “Parents can receive playtime reports that track the amount of time their child plays each week, and require parental permission before purchases are made. We plan to fight this in court. We believe the evidence will show that this case is meritless.”

One of the kids, as claimed in the lawsuit, spent more than 7,700 hours playing the game in less than two years. In addition, it is asserted in the lawsuit that the game was intentionally made to be “extremely addictive.”

However, the parents’ argument that Epic Games purposefully designed Fortnite as addictive was rejected by the court.

The judge stated, “The court finds that there is no evidence for these allegations of the deliberate creation of an addictive game. This does not exclude the possibility that the game is in fact addictive and that its designer and distributor are presumed to know it.”

Fortnite has been on the top of battle royale games since its release. According to data from Techcake, the game has over 80 million active players every month. While it’s true that the game is aimed towards children it is still the responsibility of the parents to monitor their children’s habits.

Related