Eleven HouseholdPleasant Minecraft Servers Where Your Kid Can Play Safely Online

In case your kid has spent some time playing Minecraft on their own - or with other members of the family on your home network - they'll probably attain a degree the place they’ll need to play with others on-line.

Enjoying Minecraft on a public server can take the game to a whole new level. For one thing, there’s a new group of like-minded players to make buddies with and collaborate with. It will help your child learn social skills, akin to cooperating, compromising and downside-solving.

In addition, most servers feature enormous, prebuilt worlds, with amazing cities and buildings, transport networks, and mini-video games on your child to discover and enjoy.

Lastly, most servers extend Minecraft utilizing lots of server plugins, which permit for an entire range of further gameplay features, including money techniques, jobs, role-playing components and teleports. (You don’t need to modify your Minecraft sport so as to add these features; they’re all dealt with by the server.)

By now you’re in all probability pondering: That is all very properly, however aren’t public servers a dangerous place for my kid? If they go on a server, how will I do know they are going to be safe from dangerous language, bullying, or on-line predators?

In fact, no public server is a hundred p.c safe, however there are some implausible Minecraft servers out there that cater particularly to youngsters and families. (That said, if you’d moderately arrange a very personal server for your child and their close mates, try Minecraft Realms.)

On this guide, you’ll discover eleven of the best family-pleasant Minecraft servers on the market. You’ll also be taught a bit more about how Minecraft servers work, and how to connect to those servers and start taking part in on-line.

At this point, I ought to point out that this guide is for the Computer/Mac version of Minecraft solely. While there are some household-friendly servers for the Pocket Edition and Xbox variations of Minecraft, the overwhelming majority of servers work with the Computer/Mac model.

So with out additional ado, let’s dive into the world of online, household-pleasant Minecraft! We’ll begin by looking at some important ideas related to public Minecraft servers.

Key server ideas you'll want to know

Listed below are a few key ideas and terms which are value figuring out before you be part of a public server:

Servers vs. worlds: Usually, a single public Minecraft server has several worlds which you can bounce between. For instance, there’s usually a most important survival world, another inventive-mode world, and probably a third world for mini-video games. Normally there’s a central hub or lobby, with warp factors that let you teleport between the totally different worlds.PvP and PvE: PvP stands for “player vs. player”, while PvE stands for “player vs. environment”. Most public servers - especially household-friendly ones - are PvE; that's, you battle monsters, not gamers. Nonetheless, some servers have particular PvP arenas the place you'll be able to struggle other players. (Sometimes, if you happen to die in a PvP area, you don’t lose all your stuff, as you would in a regular survival world. It’s only for enjoyable.)Spawn: Normally your participant will spawn (begin) at a set level on the earth, usually referred to simply as “spawn”. Usually that is in, or near, a central town or city, or in some form of foyer area. You can usually kind the command /spawn to return to your spawn point.Guidelines: Almost all servers have rules as to what you may and cannot do, and - as you’d think about - family-pleasant servers are likely to have an enormous listing of strict guidelines. Ensure you learn all the rules totally. (While you first join some servers, they really power you to stroll previous a lot of indicators with the foundations on!) Should you don’t comply with the principles, you may be banned briefly or even completely from the server.Griefing and grief safety: A big potential problem on public servers is griefing; that is, demolishing different players’ buildings or stealing their stuff. Many - however not all - servers use numerous plugins to stop griefing. Typically these plugins let you lock your chests, doors and furnaces, and it's also possible to claim a patch of land as your individual - this means that no person else can create or break blocks within your declare. As well as, griefing is always forbidden within the server rules; griefers are warned and then banned, and most server admins can “roll back” your constructing to the state it was in earlier than it was griefed.Text chat: Minecraft has built-in text chat (the ‘T’ key), which is the default means that your kid will communicate with other players. Chat might be public or private (that is, one-to-one). Obviously your child will need some reading ability to take part in chat, although you may also help them if you’re enjoying on-line too. Most family-friendly servers employ automated filtering to stop swearing in textual content chat. As with all online chat, be sure you remind your child never to present out private details when chatting.Voice chat: Some servers hyperlink up with voice chat servers reminiscent of Mumble, TeamSpeak or Ventrilo to enable players to talk with each other while playing. If you enable your child to use voice chat then clearly you need to watch out about who they’re speaking to, and what they’re speaking about!Server commands: To get probably the most out of online taking part in, you’ll need to present various commands to the server as you play. You give a command by pressing the / (slash) key, adopted by the command identify and, generally, some extra textual content. For example, /sethome sometimes sets your home level to the place you’re currently standing, while /residence teleports you to your house level. The commands differ from server to server, but you’ll soon get the hold of them.Utilizing mods: If you’ve added mods to your Minecraft client, watch out when connecting to servers, since most servers ban at the least some mods - significantly those that let you cheat, of course. Usually, mods comparable to OptiFine - which simply makes your sport run extra easily - are Ok.

How to join a server

Joining a public Minecraft server is very easy. Just open the Minecraft launcher and click on Play to run the principle Minecraft sport. Once you attain the principle title screen, you click the Multiplayer button, then click on the Add Server button so as to add the server.

Now type a reputation for the server in the Server Identify field, then sort the server handle in the Server Tackle field. Sometimes this will be a domain identify, resembling mc.intercraften.org, or an IP deal with, similar to 1.2.3.4. Then click Finished to add the server to your server listing:

So as to add a server, click Add Server and enter the server details. You can then connect to the server with the Be part of Server button.

Then it’s merely a matter of clicking a server within the listing, and clicking the Join Server button to connect to it.

Now let’s look at a few issues that will come up when becoming a member of a server.

Whitelisting

You can divide public Minecraft servers into two sorts:

Whitelisted servers are protected by a whitelist - that is, a listing of usernames which can be allowed to hitch the server. To hitch a whitelisted server, you want to use to have your Minecraft username added to the whitelist. Sometimes, this includes filling out a kind and ready a number of hours or days. Most servers require you to put in separate purposes for your self and on your kid. Once you’re on the whitelist, you be a part of the server as described above.Non-whitelisted servers should not have a whitelist, which means anyone can be a part of the server simply by entering the server’s handle of their Minecraft shopper, as shown above.

Making use of for a whitelisted server generally is a bit of a drag - particularly when you will have an impatient eight-yr-old tugging at your sleeve - but it does provide an extra diploma of reassurance that all of the players on the server are recognized to the server directors.

Server and shopper variations

One factor to watch out for when becoming a member of a server is making sure the model number of your Minecraft consumer (sport) matches the model number of the server. Typically talking, the variations should match, or you won’t be able to attach.

For example, the current model of Minecraft is 1.7.9, however many servers are still running 1.7.2, and even 1.6.4. Generally the server’s webpage tells you what version they’re operating, but sometimes the one method to tell is to strive it and see. If you get an error message when utilizing the 1.7.9 consumer, attempt the 1.7.2 consumer as an alternative.

Fortunately it’s straightforward to change to different variations of the Minecraft consumer. In the Minecraft launcher, you may click on New Profile to create completely different profiles that use any Minecraft version you want. Then, simply choose the profile you want to use from the drop-down record within the launcher, and click Play.

It’s simple to arrange the Minecraft launcher with profiles for various versions. Here I’ve arrange two profiles: one for 1.7.2 and another for 1.7.9. (OptiFine is a handy mod that makes your Minecraft run sooner.) The “Use version” dropdown in the topmost window allows you to select the version.

The checklist of household-pleasant servers

Now that you understand the basics of playing on-line with Minecraft, here are 11 excellent Minecraft servers for you and your child to play on.

I have personally played on all of those servers. They are listed in no specific order; I feel they're all excellent, and each single one comes throughout as being suitable and welcoming for youths, mother and father and grandparents alike!

You’ll find that every server has its own unique “feel”, so it’s price exploring just a few of them to find out which one feels right for you.

Cubeville

Cubeville is a really nice server that’s dedicated to being household-friendly. You don’t need to apply to join - just enter cubeville.org into your Minecraft consumer - but the server is well policed and has a superb, clear list of rules. It additionally has a radical tutorial if you first be a part of.

The big Cubeville world has an enormous central city, as well as numerous smaller towns and settlements dotted all around the map. There’s a tremendous vary of fun issues to discover and good people to satisfy. It’s fairly crowded, so to build you’ll must catch a journey on the transport system and head out to the sting of the map.

Cubeville additionally features a neat cash system with quests to earn cash; intelligent automated shops; and a great transport network. It also has land and chest protection so you possibly can claim your personal little corner of Cubeville for yourself.

Towncraft

Replace 14 April 2019: Towncraft has now shut down. The Towncraft employees members have arrange another family-pleasant server known as Ohanacraft that nonetheless adheres to Towncraft’s guiding principles.

Replace 10 August 2020: Towncraft is back up and working! It has the same guidelines (and server identify) as earlier than. Yay!

Towncraft shouldn't be whitelisted, so anyone can be part of - just enter play.towncraft.us into your Minecraft shopper. It also has a TeamSpeak server for voice chat; you can find the IP handle on the Towncraft website.

What I like about Towncraft is that, somewhat than just being a standard world to explore and construct in, it has a bit of a narrative occurring. A meteor has wiped out the world, and it’s as much as you and your pals on the server to rebuild it. At first of the sport, you decide a commerce, resembling hunter, farmer, blacksmith or service provider, then as you improve your skills in that trade over time, you unlock new abilities.

Towncraft doesn’t tend to get too busy, making for a relaxed crafting expertise. There are mother and father and kids taking part in on the server, and people are generally are pleasant and useful.

The server makes use of the Zombie Apocalypse plugin; this randomly makes a horde of zombies seem around the participant at night, which you have to defeat to receive a reward. Clearly, younger gamers would possibly get a bit freaked out by this, but it’s good enjoyable for older youngsters.

Towncraft makes use of the Grief Prevention plugin so you'll be able to protect your house and contents from griefing by other players.

Kolgrath, the Towncraft admin, has put collectively a participant guide, as well as a useful parent’s information to Towncraft that's worth a read.

Intercraften

Intercraften is a extremely popular household-pleasant Minecraft server. It’s properly deliberate out, and has extremely helpful moderators which might be good at sorting out issues and looking after everybody, parents and children alike.

The server is whitelisted, so to affix you first need to fill out the straightforward software kind.

Intercraften is a big server with several worlds, together with New Survival (the current essential world), a CTF (Seize the Flag) world, a peaceful world, a artistic world, a mining world, and much more.

The server has a cash system, along with jobs - corresponding to fisherman, brewer and woodcutter - that you can perform in order to earn coins. You should utilize the cash to buy stuff in retailers, and likewise to say chunks of land in order that others can’t grief your builds. In the event you do get griefed, the moderators are very careful to set all the things right again (and ban the offender from the server).

As well as doing stuff with the same old server commands, corresponding to /spawn, /sethome and /dwelling, you may as well use the consumer-friendly Intercraften Menu guide (given free whenever you be part of) to select jobs, perform commands and play mini-video games.

The Sandlot

The Sandlot is a whitelisted, household-pleasant Minecraft server that’s been running since December 2011. It’s operated by a former schoolteacher, and has an excellent set of rules and filters in place to forestall any abusive behaviour.

What I like in regards to the Sandlot is the good balance of different worlds accessible. There’s Semi-Vanilla Survival, which is fairly close to a standard Minecraft world, with the wise addition of Grief Prevention and likewise a digital forex system (tied to gold ingots) so that players can set up outlets.

A really great world for younger youngsters is easy Survival. If Semi-Vanilla Survival is Scrabble, this is Junior Scrabble. Quite than having to spend ages digging around for sources and items, youngsters can select a job (similar to farming) to earn money, then spend their cash to purchase objects in a giant mall within the centre. This makes for a a lot easier, extra relaxed gameplay fashion. AGAIN Great idea.

Other worlds in the Sandlot include a Creative world, and lots of PvP game worlds including hunger games (based loosely on the books and films), spleef and so on. There’s additionally a skyblock world (a world with floating islands and plenty of challenges).

All of those worlds are accessed through The Lobby, a incredible constructing based on Hogwarts from the Harry Potter collection (take a look at the secret passages!). This, in addition to a lot of the other Sandlot worlds, are beautifully designed, making a enjoyable, welcoming surroundings to your kid.

CrazyPig

CrazyPig is a small household-pleasant Minecraft server with a terrific group. It was initially set up by a UK mum or dad for his son, however is now open to all. It is not whitelisted; to join, just add play.crazypig.net to your Minecraft shopper.

CrazyPig makes use of a “belt” system to rank gamers by how lengthy they’ve performed on the server. As you spend extra time on the server, you’re mechanically given belts of higher rank, which in flip give you entry to sure worlds, in addition to a larger variety of “homes” that you may set and warp to.

There’s additionally a foreign money system, as well as a easy virtual marketplace the place players can purchase and sell gadgets.

As with most servers, CrazyPig options a number of interconnected worlds. There’s a central foyer space from which you'll choose a world to warp to. There’s the primary World where you’ll build your home and spend most of your time; a Inventive World (you must be Inexperienced Belt or increased to access it); a Games World with a giant chess set; and an extra Laborious world if you’re feeling brave!

Though it’s not whitelisted, CrazyPig has a friendly, useful community of players, and employs the Grief Prevention plugin to stop gamers from griefing. It additionally has fairly good computerized language filters to remove swearing.

A reasonably novel aspect of CrazyPig is the idea of areas. The principle world is mechanically divided up into areas; while you be a part of you’re mechanically added to the most recent area, but you can warp between regions. This ensures that each space of the world doesn’t get overcrowded. It’s a bit complicated at first, however once you get the dangle of it, it’s a pretty good system!

CrazyPig is a superb server if you’re in search of an excellent group, not too many guidelines, and freedom to construct and have enjoyable.

Addstar

Addstar is a busy Australian server that is child-friendly. It’s not whitelisted so anybody can join, however it is heavily moderated and comes with LWC protection (for locking issues) and Grief Prevention (for claiming land so it can’t be griefed).

Addstar follows the familiar format of a central spawn town, with warps that take you off to different worlds. There are a number of portals into a reasonably standard survival world, as well as a portal to a artistic world with tons of wonderful creations (solely donators to the server can build here).

In the spawn town you’ll additionally find warps to tons of mini-video games, together with BlockHunt, a maze, parkour, spleef, CTF (seize the flag), survival games, and even Join 4, checkers and chess!

There’s all the time quite a bit occurring on the Addstar server, and - apart from a short intro - you’re just about thrown in on the deep end, so this server might be better for older children, or those that already know Minecraft and Minecraft servers well. That said, the workers are at all times useful and pleasant.

MineSquish

MineSquish is a whitelisted server with a fairly strict software process. To apply, it is advisable to register on the boards, introduce yourself, and actively take part in the boards for a while. Solely then are you able to apply to be whitelisted. An exception is made if you’re applying on behalf of your child and they’re too young to submit on the forums. In this case, you solely need to make an introduction submit, and show that you have read through the server guidelines and explained them to your chid.

This relatively prolonged whitelisting course of, combined with strict server guidelines, ensures that players are pretty effectively vetted before they play, and helps to foster an excellent neighborhood spirit.

The MineSquish server could be very household-pleasant and has all sorts of features to make the sport safe to play for youngsters, together with a monster-free spawn (beginning) city, a rail and street system to make it straightforward to get round and keep away from getting lost, carefully managed towns, and lockable chests, doorways and furnaces.

The server doesn’t have anti-griefing block protection, so there is no such thing as a approach to protect your construct from being demolished by others. Nonetheless, players are generally well-behaved in the MineSquish group and the server admins are good at catching griefers, so griefing doesn’t are usually a giant downside.

There are several worlds to discover, including Persephone (the primary survival world, the place you build your own home), a creative freebuild world, a hard-mode Exploration world for useful resource gathering that’s wiped every 2 months, a Skylands (floating islands) world, a big Construct world for building impressive massive buildings, and more.

Here is a good MineSquish starter guide for folks and young youngsters.

SafeCraft

SafeCraft - formerly Win Family Survival - is a small but rising household-friendly server built by a devoted workforce of dad and mom and kids in the UK. It makes use of whitelisting and strict filtering to make a kid-pleasant server the place individuals help out gamers of all skills. The moderators are notably open to helping out children on the autistic spectrum and youngsters with ADHD.

The server has a fun, lively really feel to it with a fantastically colourful major lobby (see screenshot above). The safe, welcoming environment means this server will appeal to kids each young and outdated. The server includes another nice touches similar to “Server Champion” awards and recognising birthdays, which add to the sense of community.

From the foyer you can attain a regular survival world (grief safety is included); the SafeCraft world (no hostile mobs - great for littler children); a world for useful resource gathering, and heaps of great mini-video games together with Paintball, Block Hunt, starvation/survival games, TNT Run and Skyblock. There are also a few spleef arenas in the lobby.

Total, this is an effective server for kids who choose to play in a secure, welcoming atmosphere with an in depth-knit community.

Blocklandia

Blocklandia is a enjoyable, family-friendly whitelisted server that is appropriate for teenagers of all ages (some players are as younger as 4!). The moderators are very useful, and usually give you a guided tour once you first join. They may even supply to help you build your first house!

The spawn (beginning area) is themed as a large shipyard. Each ship takes you to a different land. Mainland is the main survival world, while Peaceful is a safer mode with no hostile mobs or fall harm. There’s also a Artistic world, reached via a reasonably scorching air balloon.

Blocklandia has a money system based mostly on “shillings”. There are many jobs that can earn you shillings, including weaponsmith, digger, builder, sorcerer, alchemist, and even pirate!

A nice touch is the large library, just off the shipyard. You may write a ebook and add it to the library, in addition to read different people’s books.

Though the server doesn’t allow you to claim land within the survival worlds, it does use the LWC plugin which lets you lock chests, doors, furnaces and so on. In addition, there’s a really clear, detailed algorithm (that it's a must to learn if you first connect), things like TNT and hearth are usually banned, and the moderators are very good at sorting out any griefing issues.

In case your child is pretty new to Minecraft and needs to join a useful, welcoming group then Blocklandia is an effective bet.

Famcraft

Famcraft was set up by mother and father who wanted to guantee that children had a secure place to play Minecraft on-line. It’s been operating for a couple of years and had developed a extremely good community of players, ranging in age from 5 to 77!

Famcraft shouldn't be whitelisted - just add survival.famcraft.com to your Minecraft shopper, and away you go. Whenever you first be part of, you’ll most likely be offered a tour by one of many pleasant workers members. There are normally at the very least a few workers on-line at any given moment.

The principle survival server is enormous, with a number of nice features. The main spawn area is a lovely wood seaside village, with stargates (warps) that link off to varied areas on the map. There are six frequently-altering random warps into wilderness where you can mine and build; free farms if you happen to need sources; cities to explore; a carnival; a sports activities stadium (with non-obligatory PvP); mazes; and tons of different sights. There are additionally many plugins that allow you to make cool stuff with signs and redstone, reminiscent of lifts, drawbridges, iron gates and hidden areas.

In addition to fairly standard server parts, resembling a forex system, a jobs system, and grief prevention with LWC and PreciousStones, Famcraft has some further touches that give the server its personal distinctive, group really feel.

For example, there are a lot of clans that you may be part of to work on tasks collectively, and there are additionally numerous big player statues to indicate appreciation for useful gamers on the server.

The server employees also regularly stream family pleasant music with Mixlr, which really provides an element of fun to the gameplay. They even host dance events in a improbable dance area inside the world!

Famcraft has a Mumble server, which many players use for voice chat whereas enjoying. There’s additionally a #famcraft IRC channel, which lets gamers chat with each other even when they’re not taking part in the game. All IRC chat also appears within the regular Minecraft in-recreation chat window.

In addition to the main survival world, there’s also a world that makes use of the FTB (FeedTheBeast) modpack for extra enjoyable and video games.

The Famcraft workers are attentive, useful and chatty, and make an awesome effort to ensure everyone is enjoying safely and having enjoyable.

YAMS

YAMS - Yet one more Minecraft Server - is a small household-friendly server run by a devoted crew in the UK. It makes use of whitelisting; to use for the whitelist, first register for the boards, then submit a whitelist request in the “Introduce and Whitelist Yourself” discussion board.

What I actually like about YAMS is the thought that’s gone into organising a sensible world. There’s a central spawn town with a large shopping mall, and 4 satellite tv for pc towns, reached via a complete transport network. Each satellite city has its own unique really feel and building code: for instance, the buildings in one town are constructed from cobblestone; another city options wooden buildings, and so forth. (To build in a city, you first need to show you may construct a pleasant constructing in the sandbox inside the spawn city.)

As well because the towns, there are tons of sightseeing opportunities dotted around the land, including a powerful coliseum (full with PvP video games), a college (in growth), a theatre, a windmill, a maze, an remark tower and plenty extra. There are also a number of hidden things to search out all through the map. Here we go again

YAMS doesn't have chest locking or grief safety; nevertheless the server has a detailed-knit group and a strict algorithm that help to maintain issues running along nicely. The server admin may restore any stolen or griefed gadgets.

In case your kid likes taking part in carefully with a group inside a structured setting then they will likely enjoy this server.

Glad taking part in!

I hope you’ve discovered this information to household-pleasant Minecraft servers useful, and that you discover a fantastic server that you just and your kid can get pleasure from. Perhaps I’ll meet you on one in every of them!