One of the best things in “Fortnite: Battle Royale" is that it’s free-to-play. However, a recent report revealed that young players of the hit BR shooter are being shamed by other players when it's learned that these kids can't afford to buy those in-game cosmetics with real-world cash.

Other ‘Fortnite’ players see them as poor

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England recently conducted a study of the experiences and preferences of kids in the UK who are playing video games. The report was published on Tuesday, October 22 and this is what they discovered.

According to Business Insider, the people behind the study interviewed 29 children who played games avidly and whose ages ranged between 10 to 16. The report stated that “children are scorned in games such as ‘Fortnite’ if they are seen to wear the default skin." For the uninitiated, these are the free avatar that players receive at the beginning of the game. It went on stating that children felt ashamed if they don’t have the means of purchasing some of new skins/cosmetics in the game for reasons that their friends deem them as poor.

There was a 10-year-old kid, quoted in the report saying, “if you’re a default skin, people think you’re trash.” Another child also said, in the interview, “sometimes if you are wearing the default skin you can get bullied.

My mum has just got a card, so I don’t really have many.” This after that kid revealed in the report that she was being made fun of just for having one skin in “Fortnite” as a result of her family’s financial struggle.

Playing with strangers online and in-game spending

Not only did the report focus on bullying. It also reported other things that are being encountered by young players.

One of which is playing with strangers online.

While there are a lot of instances that young players formed friendships and even met with online strangers, there are also others who “recognized that forming these sorts of connections with strangers online could be dangerous.” An 11-year-old was quoted, “I did add this one person who was really nice to me, but he sounded about 17 or 18 and I don’t want to meet a 17/18-year-old in a park.”

The Children’s Commissioner also tackled in-game spending.

One of the report’s conclusion states that it’s now a known fact that children can now make purchases in games as most of them are pressured to do so. Additionally, this “marks a significant divergence from their normal offline behavior.”

To purchase skins in “Fortnite,” a player must first buy (with real-world money) the game’s in-game currency known as V-Bucks. The website even noted in December of last year that teens were putting V-Bucks on top of their Christmas gift wishlist.
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