Why Epic Games is making its child safety tool available to developers for free

Millions of children play video games online, and titles like Fortnite have become especially popular with teenagers. That leaves many children open to having their information gathered by the games they are playing, especially since many games use a simple age verification question that essentially operates on an honour system. — 123rf.com

Epic Games, the Cary-based maker of popular video games such as Fortnite, said on Sept 30 it would make its parent verification technology free for all developers – a move it says is part of an effort to make it safer for kids to go online.

The technology comes out of an acquisition that Epic Games made last year, when it bought the company SuperAwesome, a maker of tools aimed at keeping children safe on the Internet.