What is Minecraft? Let's learn about the risks and benefits of playing with children

 What is Minecraft? Let's learn about the risks and benefits of playing with children

Minecraft, launched by Mojang Studios 16 years ago, has become one of the most famous video game franchises in the world.

Minecraft offers players the opportunity to explore and create in two modes: Survival and Creative.

Minecraft is considered suitable for ages 10 and up, and a child account provides parental control and monitoring.

Minecraft is a video game launched by Mojang Studios in 2009. It has now become one of the most famous video game franchises in the world.

Which is played by millions of people in every country and region of the world. Minecraft has launched hundreds of streaming careers and content creator channels, making it one of the most watched games on streaming platforms. Minecraft videos have been streamed more than 1 trillion times on YouTube alone.

The game has attracted adults and children alike. You may or may not have heard of Minecraft. You may have learned a lot from your children. You may have even been surprised to see your children hooked on the game.

What are the risks and benefits of children playing Minecraft?

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a game where players go on an adventure by placing blocks. It involves activities ranging from building simple objects such as containers or weapons to building structures such as houses, forts and cities, or building complex mechanical devices.

Everything happens in a game world. It allows players to create any designs and creations they can imagine. And, it is endless and limitless.

Minecraft's gameplay is divided into two modes, Survival Mode and Creative Mode.

Survival Mode

In Survival Mode, players must find food and fight enemies with weapons such as swords or pickaxes. Players must be careful when exploring their surroundings, as they can be attacked by dangerous creatures such as creepers.

The main goal is to stay safe from dangers by building tools and structures (such as a house or garden) using materials. This is different from many other games. Here, the goal of victory is completely in the hands of the player. The open-world structure encourages different play styles and promotes experimentation and exploration with crafting mechanics.

For those who want a structured challenge, the Ender Dragon is the main villain of this mode, which is not easy to defeat.

Creative Mode

In Creative Mode, players do not have to worry about hunger, health, or enemy attacks. Here, players can fly and have access to unlimited in-game resources. There is a full arsenal of materials. With it, players create whatever they want. Some build simple structures, while others create huge works of art and engineering. The possibilities are endless!

Is Minecraft suitable for children?

Minecraft is rated E10+ (Everyone 10+). This means it is suitable for ages 10 and up.

Players can interact online. It allows you to buy in-game currency and any necessary items and equipment using real money.

Creating a child account is a great way to make the experience age-appropriate for children. Microsoft and Minecraft allow children to create accounts for the game. This makes it easy for parents to manage and monitor gameplay, multiplayer access, chat settings, and sending friend requests.

It has built-in features that limit interaction with strangers. Of course, child accounts require parental approval for in-game purchases.

The core Minecraft game does not contain violent or gory content. Enemies and other creatures simply disappear when defeated, and there are no violent scenes of killing. Players can kill non-dangerous animals for food, but such displays are not very popular.

However, the creation and sharing feature may allow some users to publish content that is not suitable for your children. However, there is a feature for parents to manage access to user-created content, meaning that they cannot allow their children to access it.

Items such as pickaxes and dynamite are used to blow up terrain and enemies, but these are made of blocks and are cartoonish in nature. In Survival mode, players can die from hunger, fire, drowning, falling, or being attacked by dangerous creatures. However, these scenes are not shown, and players are reborn after death.

Community Features

Minecraft worlds are hosted on servers. Within these, private servers are created by independent members and are not controlled or moderated by Mojang Studios. Servers may contain users unknown to parents.

Voice chat is not available on the PC version, but players can communicate using other platforms like Discord. Meanwhile, those playing on game console platforms like Xbox and PlayStation have access to in-game voice chat.

Parents can block or limit who their children can communicate with . Other players who behave inappropriately can be blocked or muted. Players and servers that violate the guidelines in-game and on the Minecraft website can also be reported.

Parents should monitor which Minecraft servers their children participate in to determine whether the user base is appropriate. Mojang Studios has partnered with GamerSafer to curate an official Minecraft server list, where players can easily find safe third-party servers.

For added security, you can create a private server called a Minecraft Realm for your children. This allows you to individually approve or deny who is allowed to join. Setting up a Minecraft Realm is user-friendly and requires no technical knowledge. With parental permission, children can invite their friends to play in their private Realm.

There are two versions of Minecraft: Minecraft Java and Minecraft Bedrock

Minecraft is available on smartphones, tablets, and computers. However, it does require a small fee. As per its version, it costs around $7 to $20.

But parental consent is required to purchase it.

A special version of Minecraft has also been made for the purpose of teaching children. It has been named ‘Minecraft: Education Edition’. It teaches children to be creative, solve problems, etc.