Call of Duty: Warzone
A free-to-play war game with realistic violence, open voice chat and an 18 rating.
I play Warzone myself, so this advice has been field-tested. Agree an end time, not a number of rounds. A round can be over in two minutes or last half an hour, so rounds can't be counted. With a known end time the player does the steering: ten minutes left is enough for one quick, aggressive round, five means not starting another. And leave five to ten minutes of slack in the agreement, so the round in progress gets finished rather than cut off.
The limits by age, and the moves that make them stick: Screen time for kids and teens, a complete guide.
The most important things to know
When kids say “CoD”, they usually mean Warzone, the part of Call of Duty that's free to download. It's a “battle royale”: teams drop onto a big map, the playable area keeps shrinking, and the last team standing wins. No two rounds are alike, and that kind of variable reward is much of why “just one more game” comes so easily. Because it's free, nobody has to ask for money to join in. Once a few in the class are playing, everyone else is one download away.
The 18 rating is no formality here. PEGI gives it 18 for graphic violence against human-like characters: this violence is realistic and close up, not Fortnite's cartoon. Then there's the open voice chat, raw enough that Activision has put artificial intelligence on moderating it in real time.
At the same time, this is everyday reality in a lot of Norwegian homes: nearly half of 9 to 17-year-olds who game have played 18-rated games, and among boys of 13 to 14 the share is 63 per cent. The question tends to arrive long before 18, and you're not alone in facing it.
What's positive about Call of Duty: Warzone for your child?
The game itself is well made, and for older teens much of Fortnite's good side is here too: teamwork, communication and real skill, with the friend group in your ear. The pull to join isn't silly. It's a wish to be where the team is.
How can Call of Duty: Warzone affect your child negatively?
The violence is what the rating is for: realistic, bloody and close up, made to look like real war. It's a very different experience from the cartoon shooters.
The voice chat puts your child straight in with unknown adults, and the tone is a matter of record: Activision brought in real-time AI moderation precisely because harassment in the chat was that big a problem.
The shop follows the Fortnite recipe: battle pass, daily tasks and bundles, all built so that a day without playing means rewards your child misses out on. Free to download means, as usual, that the money gets collected along the way.
Settings you set together
- Real birth date on the Activision account: it's what triggers the parental consent and chat blocks for the youngest.
- Voice chat: party or friends only, not the whole lobby, and check that the console account setting says the same, since it can override the game's. Text chat can be switched off entirely.
- Switch off “Proximity Chat” under Settings → Audio → Voice Chat, or with the Voice button on the lobby screen, following Activision's own overview. It lets your child hear and talk to nearby opponents mid-match, strangers included, and it only works when “Game Chat Voice” is set to “All Lobby”, so chat with party or friends only takes it out at the same time.
- Graphic content: blood and gore effects can be turned off in the menu, and swearing can be filtered out of the text chat.
- Purchases: a PIN on the platform and a standing agreement about COD Points.
Ask your child about the game
- Could I watch a round sometime, with you talking me through what you're doing?
- Describe the gulag for me. Do you get nervous going in?
- Who talks the most in your team, and what do you actually say to each other during a round?
- When someone in the voice chat gets nasty, how do you and your mates handle it?
Glossary
- battle royale
- The main mode: teams drop onto a big map, the playable area shrinks, and the last team alive wins; rounds last from two minutes to half an hour.
- gulag
- A one-on-one duel you get after dying the first time in a round; win it and you drop back in, lose and you are out unless a teammate buys you back.
- loadout
- Your chosen set of weapons and perks, delivered mid-round in a crate; much of the tinkering between rounds is about the loadout.
- Resurgence
- A faster mode on a smaller map where you come back as long as a teammate is still alive; many younger players prefer it.
- lobby
- Everyone in the same round, up to 150 players; “lobby voice chat” means talking to all of them, which the settings can turn off.
- plates
- The armour your character carries, three at most; “plating up” between fights is a constant part of the game.
- buy station
- A shop inside the round where in-match cash, not real money, buys back teammates and loadout drops.
- COD Points
- The real-money currency; 1,100 points cost about 10 euros, and a skin bundle usually runs to 1,800 or 2,400.
- operator
- The character you play as; operator skins are what the bundles sell, and they change nothing about how the game plays.
Sources
The whole mindset behind the guide, with the research and the open-door principle: Kids and social media, a parent's guide
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