Call of Duty & Warzone Safety Guide for Parents
One of the most-played shooters among UK teenagers. Call of Duty is rated PEGI 18 for realistic violence and has open voice chat and in-game spending. How to set it up and talk about it.
Call of Duty is a PEGI 18 shooter, including the free-to-play battle royale Warzone, hugely popular with teenage boys for its online squads and open voice chat.
Official age
18+
We recommend
18+
Developer
Activision
Risks
4
Overview
Call of Duty, including the free-to-play battle royale Warzone, is one of the biggest console and PC shooters and is very popular with teenage boys — many younger than its PEGI 18 rating. The safety issues are less about the game itself and more about who your child talks to and what they spend: open voice and text chat with strangers, and a store built around bundles, battle passes, and loot.
How children use it
Children play online with friends and strangers in squads, communicating over live voice chat. The realistic violence is why it is rated 18, but for most parents the bigger day-to-day issues are exposure to strangers and adult language over voice chat, and pressure to spend on skins, bundles, and battle passes. Cross-play means they may be matched with players on any platform.
Main risks
Recommended privacy settings
Voice and text chat
Location: Activision account settings, plus the console's family settings (PlayStation / Xbox)
Set to: Restrict to friends only, or disable open voice chat
Open voice chat with strangers is the main exposure. Both the Activision account and the console's own parental controls let you limit who your child can talk to; set them at both levels.
Spending controls
Location: Console family settings (PlayStation / Microsoft Family) and store account
Set to: Require approval for all purchases; remove stored payment methods
Warzone is free but monetised through bundles and battle passes. Requiring approval for every purchase prevents surprise spending.
Cross-play and profile privacy
Location: In-game settings and console account
Set to: Set profile to friends; consider limiting cross-play
Cross-play widens the pool of strangers your child is matched with. Tightening profile privacy limits unsolicited friend requests and messages.
Parent actions
Set up the console's family account (PlayStation / Microsoft Family) with an age-appropriate profile before your child plays
Time: 20 minutes
Restrict or disable voice chat with strangers, and require approval for all spending
Time: 15 minutes
Talk about the game being rated 18 for realistic violence, and agree what is okay in your family
Time: 15 minutes
Related app guides
If you need to report this
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
Myths & facts
Myth: Warzone is free to play, so it must be aimed at a broad, younger audience like other free games such as Fortnite.
Fact: Being free-to-play doesn't change the age rating — Warzone carries the same PEGI 18 for realistic violence and language as the paid Call of Duty titles, unlike PEGI 12-rated Fortnite. Free just means anyone can install it on a shared console or PC without buying anything first.
Myth: Turning off voice chat solves the stranger-contact problem.
Fact: Voice chat is the loudest channel but not the only one — text chat, friend requests, and cross-play matchmaking can still put a child in contact with adult strangers. Muting voice chat plus restricting the profile and messaging settings, at both the Activision account and console level, covers more of the exposure.
Myth: Because the game itself is free, there's nothing to spend money on.
Fact: It's the opposite: free-to-play games make their money through the store, so Warzone is built around bundles, battle passes, and cosmetic purchases designed to prompt impulse spending. Requiring purchase approval and removing stored payment methods matters just as much as it would for a paid game.
Age by age
- 8-10
This is a PEGI 18 game, not designed for this age group, and that's true even though it costs nothing to download. If a sibling or friend plays it in the house, the honest approach is explaining why it's off-limits for now rather than letting access happen quietly on a shared console.
- 11-13
Still below the 18 rating, and this is the age where peer pressure to play is strongest because it's free and everyone can install it. If you decide to allow it despite the rating, restrict voice and text chat to friends only and require approval for every purchase before they start.
- 14-16
Many teenagers play Warzone despite the rating, so the practical focus shifts to harm reduction: restrict voice chat to friends rather than open lobbies, tighten cross-play and profile privacy, and lock down spending. Keep talking about what gets said to them over voice chat, since that's the most common source of unpleasant contact.
- 17-plus
At or near the game's actual rating, but spending controls are still worth keeping — battle passes and bundles are designed to encourage repeat purchases regardless of age. It's also worth an occasional check-in about toxic chat culture and any pressure to spend to keep up with a squad.
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