Since your child loves Minecraft and spend a lot of their time playing, there are a few things you need to know. This post will cover what parents need to know about Minecraft.
What is Minecraft?
First off, let’s answer the question: What is Minecraft? Minecraft is an adventure game that essentially has no end. Kids can play for an endless amount of time as there is no specific goal of the game unlike a first person shooter game for example. There is no rule book for Minecraft. Kids learn as they go and explore along the way. So, what do parents need to know about Minecraft? Let us tell you.
What Parents Need to Know about Minecraft
Risks of Minecraft
Are there risks? This is the question parents always want the answer to. For many games, the answer is the same, yes and no. Minecraft can be played in both single player and multiplayer mode. When played in single player mode, Minecraft is quite safe. To play single player, your child will play in creative mode on the peaceful setting. On this setting, your child is not interacting with others so little harm can be caused.
Risks Increase With Age
As kids get older, they want to play with others which does invite some risk. Minecraft doesn’t have to be violent, but it often is. There are ways to play that are not considered violent at all, but as players get older, they tend to get more violent. In addition, other players can sabotage your child by destroying their land and buildings, stealing their hard earned possessions in the game and/or killing them. This can cause a lot of stress for your child. They are likely to experience feelings of being invaded and targeted. Players need to learn who they can trust and who is out to get them in the game. At the same time, they can work collaboratively with other players to continue to grow in the game. In multiplayer mode, chats are enabled. This is where your child may be exposed to hate speech, vulgar language, sexual content and hate speech.
There is no age limit for Minecraft and due to the nature of the game, many adults play. It is not unusual for the player created events to display sexual scenarios and mature content that you likely don’t want your child to see. One way to avoid this type of content is to encourage your child to play in a private server that can hold up to 10 players. These are invite only servers which brings up the next issue.
Bullying
As in any multiplayer game, bullying may happen on Minecraft. That’s what ProtectMe by Kidas is here for. While Minecraft and the Minecraft community is generally welcoming, things can get out of hand in chats. Public servers have moderators that are meant to keep things in order and safe for players. The moderators will send out bans, whether short term or permanent to members of the community who break the rules. They aim to block and stop the most serious offences in Minecraft. With that said, children are frequently bullied in the game or through gaming chats while playing Minecraft.
What Does Bullying on Minecraft Look Like?
In Minecraft, bullying is defined as the repeated and unwelcome aggressive acts against an unwilling and non-consenting player, who has previously asked the aggressor to leave them alone. Examples of this include:
- attacking a player to the point where they cannot play the game
- waiting at a players home in the game or at a project for them to respawn (come back to life) so that they can continue killing them
- following the player through the game to continuously kill them
- waiting from the player somewhere in the game that you know they will go to kill them
- inciting others to attack the player so that no one gets banned for repetitive killing
In addition to these acts, your child may be bullied in the chat. What is seen as bullying by the moderators is limited. Mean words are not seen as bullying due to Minecraft’s policy of absolute freedom of speech in chat, however how your child feels from what is being said to them is most important and bullying is possible and likely in these chats.
While your child loves Minecraft, there are risks to be aware of.
Keep an eye on your child and read your weekly ProtectMe by Kidas report to ensure you aren’t missing anything.