Is Brawl Stars Safe? A Brawl Stars App Review for Parents

Harmful Content 😲

Brawl Stars is an action game that involves killing other players, but there’s no gore or intense graphics. The main danger is the ability to communicate and play with other people. Someone may have an inappropriate username, or even worse, your child could encounter explicit content in a group chat. Group chats also pose a greater threat of predation, which we’ll talk about later.

There’s no way for your child to receive photos or videos on the app, but they could find themselves in the middle of an explicit conversation or even being bullied by other players. Your child can report this kind of content, but the app doesn’t have many safeguards for stopping it.

Predation 🚨

Whenever games have a chat feature, there’s a greater risk of predation. A predator can pose as a child and start messaging yours on Brawl Stars. Players can be blocked, but there’s no way to confirm someone’s identity in the game, and it’s often difficult to tell if someone is a predator. The creators of Brawl Stars know this is a risk, and they even include the word “grooming” as a term to know in the parent guide.

Privacy 🔒

Players don’t have to disclose any personal information, like their location, picture, or name, if they choose not to. The app’s parent guide suggests staying completely anonymous to reduce the risk of exploitation. Players don’t have to connect with friends and join chats, but even solo games make random players fight against each other. This means, your child’s username would be visible to everyone they battle, and your child will inevitably see other usernames.

Parental Controls ✅

Brawl Stars offers parents a guide with tips for keeping kids safe on the game, but they don’t offer any monitoring tools. Even though the chat feature can be toggled off, your child could easily change this without you knowing, since the settings aren’t passcode restricted. This is where Bark comes in. Bark can help you stay in control by letting you:

• Block Brawl Stars completely, if needed.
• Manage when your child can use Brawl Stars throughout the day.

So, should my kid download it?

Probably not, at least not until they’re older. If they are going to play Brawl Stars, it’s important that your child plays responsibility and understands the dangers that come with the game, especially the option to connect and chat with other players.