The short answer: Call of Duty is built for adults — Mature 17+ in the US, PEGI 18, and MA15+ to R18+ in Australia. Even CoD: Mobile is MA15+ here. The free entry points (Mobile and Warzone) pull a lot of kids in young. The biggest risk is live voice and text chat with strangers, then graphic violence and CoD-Points spending. If you do say yes for an older teen, voice chat off and spending locked at the device level are non-negotiable.
What Call of Duty is
A first-person military shooter. The free doorways are CoD: Mobile on phones and Warzone on PC and console — both feed into the wider, paid Call of Duty universe. Matches are quick, lobbies are public, cross-play widens the unknown-adult pool.
The real risks
- Live chat with strangers. Voice especially — there's no profanity filter that works on speech. Adults trash-talk, abuse and groom in CoD lobbies.
- Graphic mature violence. Realistic gore, dismemberment, war themes. Designed for adults, not kids.
- Spending & toxicity. CoD-Points, battle passes and bundles add up fast. Cross-play means the lobby is full of unknown adults.
So what age?
The proper console titles are adult games. CoD: Mobile is store-rated teen but still MA15+ in Australia. We'd say not under 13, and only carefully from around 15+ with voice and text chat off and spending locked at the device level.
What we do
Set the correct date of birth on the Activision account so the age protections and consent flow actually apply. Force voice and text chat to Off in-game (Settings → Audio) and lock it via the Activision parent portal. Turn off blood, gore and dismemberment in-game. Require a PIN for every purchase — no stored card. Use the console or device age filter to block M and MA15+ titles, and add a daily screen-time limit.
The bottom line: Call of Duty isn't a kids' game. If an older teen plays it, voice chat off and spending locked are the two musts.
Lock it down — start tonight
Mum's quick wins for Call of Duty. Do step 1 tonight; the rest are in the members' guide.
- 1Set the correct date of birth on the Activision account so age protections and the consent flow apply
The rest of the Call of Duty lockdown
5 more steps — every toggle, screen by screen.
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See the signsSources: eSafety — Call of Duty; ESRB — Call of Duty: Warzone; Internet Matters — Call of Duty; Activision Parent Portal. Settings current as of June 2026.