Fortnite will soon make all user-made content include an age rating
The Roblox-ification of Fortnite continues.
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Pretty soon, anything you make in Fortnite Creative will be assigned an age rating, as Epic is introducing a system that makes it compulsory to have one.
Earlier today, Epic announced on its creator portal that it will be working with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to introduce "internationally-recognized age and content ratings for all first and third-party playable content." This new age rating system will be implemented November 14, with Epic noting that "all experiences published in Fortnite will be required to have an IARC-assigned rating."
The post goes on to explain to talk about Epic's obvious push to making Fortnite something more like Roblox than a simple battle royale, writing, "as Fortnite continues to evolve into a multi-game ecosystem featuring a diverse range of games and experiences from Epic and third-party creators, the IARC rating system gives parents and players access to trusted and familiar ratings that help them make informed decisions about what and how they play."
Overall, it doesn't sound like getting an age rating assigned to your Fortnite Creative projects is particularly complicated. According to the post, you just need to fill in an IARC content rating questionnaire (you can read more about how the IARC works here). Then, once your project has been reviewed by Epic moderators, it will get an age-based IARC rating, as well as region-specific ratings, which will automatically appear on the project. If you've made any projects so far, or "islands" as Epic calls them, the IARC questionnaire will be available from October 16. I would consider filling it out, as if you don't your "islands" will be delisted November 14, so you just need to do it before then.
Fortnite is obviously played by a very wide range of ages, and because of that not all of its Creative content may be appropriate for that entire range. Creative 2.0 was introduced back in March, which added in the Unreal Editor, allowing custom assets, animations, audio, VFX, that sort of thing. All of which could push it towards being a dedicated gaming platform, making it not very surprising that Epic would want to push the responsibility of something like age ratings of its own shoulders a touch.