Free Fire

Is Free Fire safe for kids?

Free Fire is not a children's game, though many children play it. It is a fast battle royale shooter, rated 13+ by Apple, in which squads of strangers chat and the shop sells random rewards for diamonds bought with real money. Its privacy label is one of the heavier ones among big games, and two governments have blocked it.

We score it 45/100. That is below PUBG Mobile (54), its closest rival, and Fortnite (57). Free Fire's numbers are pulled down by advertising tracking, loot boxes and its record with governments and courts.

What data Free Fire collects

Apple's label lists four kinds of data as used to track you across other companies' apps and websites: purchases, user content, identifiers and usage data. That is more than PUBG Mobile, which lists only customer support records, and close to Candy Crush. Linked to your account are precise location, name, email address, contacts, browsing history, gameplay content and diagnostics.

Garena's privacy policy covers all its games. It lists chat data, including voice and text, among the information it collects, and says the apps may collect precise location through GPS and Wi-Fi, for example to share your location with other players. It allows Garena's advertising partners to set cookies and similar tools for remarketing. It also says Garena has not sold personal information as California's law defines it. To withdraw consent or delete your data you email Garena's data protection officer; there is no self-service tool described in the policy.

Blocks in India and Bangladesh

In February 2022 Free Fire disappeared from the Google Play Store and App Store in India, among 54 apps blocked by the government. India gave no detailed public reasons, and reports at the time said the apps were accused of collecting sensitive user data. Garena is based in Singapore and denied sending data to China. Free Fire MAX, a separate version of the game, stayed available.

Garena planned a comeback called Free Fire India for 5 September 2023, with Indian players' data hosted by the local company Yotta and reminders to take breaks. It postponed the launch days before. By late September 2026 Garena had still not announced a new date, Outlook Respawn reported, and Free Fire MAX remains the version Indians play.

Bangladesh acted earlier. On 16 August 2021 its High Court ordered PUBG, Free Fire and similar games blocked for three months, calling them harmful to children, and the telecom regulator BTRC said it had begun blocking them. In April 2022 the court refused to revoke its order, so the ban formally stayed in force. In practice it is not enforced: in January 2026 Garena named Bangladesh's football captain, Jamal Bhuyan, as a Free Fire brand ambassador and added the national team's shirt to the game, Prothom Alo reported, and in June 2026 The Daily Campus reported large tournaments held openly despite the court order.

Loot boxes and the Brazilian ruling

Brazil is one of Free Fire's biggest markets, and it has gone further than most countries. Law 15.211, known as the ECA Digital, bans loot boxes in games aimed at or likely to be used by children and teenagers. It took effect on 17 March 2026. Garena chose to change the game rather than raise its age rating: it removed events in the Menu Royale that used diamonds for random spins.

A separate lawsuit had been running since 2021. Free Fire Mania, a Brazilian news site about the game, quotes the judgment, and the Brazilian courts' public DataJud database records it as partly upheld on 9 June 2026 in case 0719527-82.2024.8.07.0001. The 1st Childhood and Youth Court of the Federal District ordered Garena to pay R$15 million (about $2.7 million) in collective moral damages in a case brought by ANCED, a national association of child-rights centres. The court found that paid random rewards could exploit children's vulnerability, especially without clear odds. It ordered warnings on loot box screens, exact odds, reliable age checks and a free refund system for purchases by minors without parental permission, all due 90 days after the judgment becomes final. The court partly accepted motions to clarify the judgment in July, and appeals were filed in August 2026, so none of those measures apply yet.

How to set up Free Fire for a teenager

1. Log in with an account you control, not a guest account, so the game can be recovered if the phone is lost.
2. Turn on purchase approval: Ask to Buy on iPhone, or a password for every purchase on Google Play.
3. Switch off or limit in-game chat, and keep squads to friends your teenager knows.
4. Explain that free diamond offers, account trades and cheap skin sellers are the usual way accounts are stolen.
5. If you want Garena to delete the data, email its data protection officer at the address given in the privacy policy.

How we scored it

Privacy (38) and scams and harmful content (38) are Free Fire's weakest factors: four categories of tracking data, paid loot boxes and chat with strangers. Regulatory record (40) reflects two national blocks, both still formally in force. Security (55) is its best factor, and only middling: no known breach and an invite-only bug bounty, but little published about account protection.