Eleven Household-Pleasant Minecraft Servers The Place Your Kid Can Play Safely Online

If your child has spent a while taking part in Minecraft on their own - or with different members of the family on your home network - they'll most likely reach a degree where they’ll wish to play with others online.

Playing Minecraft on a public server can take the game to a whole new degree. For one thing, there’s a new group of like-minded players to make mates with and collaborate with. This can help your kid learn social abilities, comparable to cooperating, compromising and drawback-fixing.

As well as, most servers function big, prebuilt worlds, with amazing cities and buildings, transport networks, and mini-games for your kid to explore and get pleasure from.

Lastly, most servers extend Minecraft utilizing a lot of server plugins, which permit for a complete vary of further gameplay options, together with money methods, jobs, function-taking part in elements and teleports. (You don’t need to change your Minecraft sport to add these options; they’re all dealt with by the server.)

By now you’re probably considering: This is all very nicely, however aren’t public servers a dangerous place for my kid? In the event that they go on a server, how will I know they are going to be safe from dangerous language, bullying, or online predators?

After all, no public server is 100 % protected, but there are some fantastic Minecraft servers on the market that cater particularly to kids and families. (That mentioned, if you’d relatively set up a totally private server on your child and their close mates, check out Minecraft Realms.)

In this information, you’ll uncover eleven of the best household-pleasant Minecraft servers out there. You’ll additionally learn a bit more about how Minecraft servers work, and the way to connect to these servers and begin enjoying on-line.

At this point, I should level out that this guide is for the Laptop/Mac model of Minecraft only. While there are some family-pleasant servers for the Pocket Edition and Xbox versions of Minecraft, the overwhelming majority of servers work with the Computer/Mac version.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the world of online, household-friendly Minecraft! We’ll begin by taking a look at some vital ideas related to public Minecraft servers.

Key server ideas that you must know

Listed below are a few key ideas and phrases which can be worth knowing earlier than you be a part of a public server:

Servers vs. worlds: Normally, a single public Minecraft server has several worlds that you could leap between. For instance, there’s typically a essential survival world, another inventive-mode world, and possibly a third world for mini-video games. Normally there’s a central hub or lobby, with warp factors that allow you to teleport between the completely different worlds.
PvP and PvE: PvP stands for “player vs. player”, while PvE stands for “player vs. environment”. Most public servers - particularly household-friendly ones - are PvE; that is, you battle monsters, not gamers. Nevertheless, some servers have special PvP arenas where you can fight other gamers. (Usually, for those who die in a PvP arena, you don’t lose all of your stuff, as you'll in a regular survival world. It’s just for enjoyable.)
Spawn: Normally your player will spawn (start) at a set point on the planet, often referred to easily as “spawn”. Sometimes this is in, or close to, a central town or city, or in some kind of foyer space. You may often kind the command /spawn to return to your spawn point.
Guidelines: Nearly all servers have rules as to what you'll be able to and can't do, and - as you’d think about - family-friendly servers are likely to have a giant record of strict guidelines. Make sure you learn all the principles thoroughly. (If you first join some servers, they really force you to stroll past lots of indicators with the principles on!) If you happen to don’t follow the foundations, you could be banned temporarily and even permanently from the server.
Griefing and grief safety: A giant potential drawback on public servers is griefing; that is, demolishing different players’ buildings or stealing their stuff. Many - but not all - servers use varied plugins to cease griefing. Sometimes these plugins let you lock your chests, doorways and furnaces, and you may as well declare a patch of land as your personal - this means that no person else can create or break blocks inside your claim. In addition, griefing is all the time forbidden within the server guidelines; griefers are warned after which banned, and most server admins can “roll back” your constructing to the state it was in before it was griefed.
Text chat: Minecraft has built-in textual content chat (the ‘T’ key), which is the default manner that your child will communicate with other gamers. Chat will be public or non-public (that is, one-to-one). Obviously your child will want some reading ability to participate in chat, although you may help them if you’re enjoying online too. Most family-pleasant servers make use of automated filtering to forestall swearing in textual content chat. As with all online chat, be sure you remind your kid never to provide out private details when chatting.
Voice chat: Some servers link up with voice chat servers reminiscent of Mumble, TeamSpeak or Ventrilo to enable gamers to talk with each other while playing. Should you enable your child to use voice chat then obviously you need to be careful about who they’re speaking to, and what they’re speaking about!
Server commands: To get the most out of on-line taking part in, you’ll want to give varied commands to the server as you play. You give a command by urgent the / (slash) key, adopted by the command name and, generally, some further textual content. For example, /sethome sometimes sets your property point to the place you’re presently standing, whereas /residence teleports you to your house point. The commands range from server to server, however you’ll quickly get the cling of them.
Utilizing mods: If you’ve added mods to your Minecraft consumer, watch out when connecting to servers, since most servers ban no less than some mods - significantly people who allow you to cheat, in fact. Often, mods resembling OptiFine - which merely makes your sport run more smoothly - are Ok.

How to join a server

Becoming a member of a public Minecraft server is very easy. Simply open the Minecraft launcher and click on Play to run the main Minecraft sport. When you attain the primary title display screen, you click on the Multiplayer button, then click on the Add Server button so as to add the server.

Now kind a reputation for the server within the Server Title box, then kind the server deal with within the Server Address box. Usually this will be a site title, akin to mc.intercraften.org, or an IP address, reminiscent of 1.2.3.4. Then click on Achieved to add the server to your server listing:

So as to add a server, click on Add Server and enter the server particulars. You possibly can then connect with the server with the Join Server button.

Then it’s simply a matter of clicking a server within the checklist, and clicking the Join Server button to connect with it.

Now let’s take a look at a couple of issues which will come up when becoming a member of a server.

Whitelisting

You can divide public Minecraft servers into two types:

Whitelisted servers are protected by a whitelist - that's, an inventory of usernames which can be allowed to hitch the server. To join a whitelisted server, you need to apply to have your Minecraft username added to the whitelist. Typically, this entails filling out a kind and ready a few hours or days. Most servers require you to put in separate purposes for yourself and in your child. Once you’re on the whitelist, you be a part of the server as described above.
Non-whitelisted servers wouldn't have a whitelist, which implies anyone can be part of the server just by coming into the server’s tackle of their Minecraft consumer, as shown above.

Applying for a whitelisted server can be a bit of a drag - particularly when you may have an impatient eight-year-outdated tugging at your sleeve - however it does provide an extra degree of reassurance that all of the gamers on the server are known to the server administrators.

Server and client variations

One thing to watch out for when becoming a member of a server is ensuring the version variety of your Minecraft client (recreation) matches the version number of the server. Generally talking, the variations need to match, or you won’t be ready to attach.

For example, the present model of Minecraft is 1.7.9, however many servers are still operating 1.7.2, and even 1.6.4. Generally the server’s webpage tells you what version they’re running, but sometimes the only method to inform is to attempt it and see. In case you get an error message when using the 1.7.9 consumer, strive the 1.7.2 client as a substitute.

Luckily it’s simple to switch to totally different variations of the Minecraft shopper. In the Minecraft launcher, you may click on New Profile to create different profiles that use any Minecraft version you want. Then, just choose the profile you need to use from the drop-down list in the launcher, and click Play.

It’s straightforward to set up the Minecraft launcher with profiles for different versions. Here I’ve arrange two profiles: one for 1.7.2 and one other for 1.7.9. (OptiFine is a handy mod that makes your Minecraft run quicker.) The “Use version” dropdown within the topmost window allows you to select the model.

The record of family-pleasant servers

Now that you already know the fundamentals of enjoying on-line with Minecraft, here are eleven wonderful Minecraft servers for you and your child to play on.

I've personally performed on all of these servers. They're listed in no explicit order; I believe they're all superb, and every single one comes across as being appropriate and welcoming for youths, parents and grandparents alike!

You’ll discover that each server has its personal unique “feel”, so it’s worth exploring a couple of of them to search out out which one feels right for you.

Cubeville

Cubeville is a really nice server that’s committed to being household-friendly. You don’t want to use to hitch - just enter cubeville.org into your Minecraft client - however the server is effectively policed and has a very good, clear listing of rules. It additionally has a thorough tutorial if you first join.

The enormous Cubeville world has a big central city, as well as a lot of smaller towns and settlements dotted everywhere in the map. There’s an incredible range of fun issues to discover and good folks to satisfy. It’s pretty crowded, so to build you’ll must catch a ride on the transport system and head out to the edge of the map.

Cubeville also options a neat cash system with quests to earn money; intelligent automated outlets; and an awesome transport network. It additionally has land and chest protection so you'll be able to claim your own little nook of Cubeville for yourself.

Towncraft

Update 14 April 2019: Towncraft has now shut down. The Towncraft employees members have arrange another household-friendly server referred to as Ohanacraft that still adheres to Towncraft’s guiding ideas.

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

Towncraft isn't whitelisted, so anyone can be part of - simply enter play.towncraft.us into your Minecraft shopper. It additionally has a TeamSpeak server for voice chat; you will discover the IP address on the Towncraft web site.

What I like about Towncraft is that, slightly than just being a standard world to discover and build in, it has a little bit of a narrative going on. A meteor has wiped out the world, and it’s up to you and your mates on the server to rebuild it. Initially of the game, you pick a commerce, reminiscent of hunter, farmer, blacksmith or service provider, then as you enhance your skills in that trade over time, you unlock new abilities.

Towncraft doesn’t are inclined to get too busy, making for a relaxed crafting experience. There are mother and father and youngsters enjoying on the server, and people are generally are pleasant and helpful.

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

Towncraft makes use of the Grief Prevention plugin so you possibly can protect your house and contents from griefing by other players.

Kolgrath, the Towncraft admin, has put collectively a player information, in addition to a useful parent’s guide to Towncraft that's price a read.

Intercraften

Intercraften is a highly regarded family-friendly Minecraft server. It’s nicely planned out, and has extremely helpful moderators which can be good at sorting out problems and looking after everybody, mother and father and children alike.

The server is whitelisted, so to join you first have to fill out the straightforward application kind.

Intercraften is a big server with a number of worlds, together with New Survival (the present principal world), a CTF (Capture the Flag) world, a peaceful world, a inventive world, a mining world, and much extra.

The server has a money system, together with jobs - akin to fisherman, brewer and woodcutter - that you may perform to be able to earn coins. You need to use the cash to purchase stuff in retailers, and likewise to assert chunks of land so that others can’t grief your builds. Should you do get griefed, the moderators are very careful to set the whole lot proper again (and ban the offender from the server).

In addition to doing stuff with the usual server commands, equivalent to /spawn, /sethome and /residence, you may as well use the person-pleasant Intercraften Menu ebook (given free once you be part of) to select jobs, carry out commands and play mini-games.

The Sandlot

The Sandlot is a whitelisted, family-friendly Minecraft server that’s been operating since December 2011. It’s operated by a former schoolteacher, and has a superb set of rules and filters in place to stop any abusive behaviour.

What I like about the Sandlot is the good steadiness of various worlds available. There’s Semi-Vanilla Survival, which is fairly close to an ordinary Minecraft world, with the smart addition of Grief Prevention and likewise a digital currency system (tied to gold ingots) so that gamers can arrange retailers.

A extremely great world for younger youngsters is straightforward Survival. If Semi-Vanilla Survival is Scrabble, that is Junior Scrabble. Quite than having to spend ages digging round for sources and objects, children can choose a job (similar to farming) to earn money, then spend their money to purchase gadgets in an enormous mall in the centre. This makes for a a lot simpler, extra relaxed gameplay type. Nice concept.

Different worlds in the Sandlot embrace a Inventive world, and plenty of PvP recreation worlds including hunger video games (primarily based loosely on the books and motion pictures), spleef and so on. There’s also a skyblock world (a world with floating islands and many challenges).

All of these worlds are accessed through The Lobby, a implausible constructing based on Hogwarts from the Harry Potter sequence (try the key passages!). This, as well as lots of the other Sandlot worlds, are beautifully designed, making a fun, welcoming atmosphere in your child.

CrazyPig

CrazyPig is a small household-pleasant Minecraft server with a fantastic group. It was initially set up by a UK mum or dad for his son, however is now open to all. It isn't whitelisted; to hitch, just add play.crazypig.web to your Minecraft consumer.

CrazyPig uses a “belt” system to rank gamers by how long they’ve performed on the server. As you spend more time on the server, you’re routinely given belts of upper rank, which in turn offer you entry to certain worlds, in addition to a larger number of “homes” that you may set and warp to.

There’s also a currency system, in addition to a easy virtual marketplace the place gamers should purchase and promote items.

As with most servers, CrazyPig options a number of interconnected worlds. There’s a central foyer area from which you'll be able to select a world to warp to. There’s the primary World the place you’ll construct your house and spend most of your time; a Creative World (you must be Green Belt or greater to access it); a Video games World with a large chess set; and an additional Onerous world if you’re feeling brave!

Though it’s not whitelisted, CrazyPig has a pleasant, useful community of gamers, and employs the Grief Prevention plugin to cease gamers from griefing. It additionally has fairly good automatic language filters to eradicate swearing.

A fairly novel facet of CrazyPig is the idea of areas. The primary world is routinely divided up into regions; if you be part of you’re automatically added to the newest region, however you'll be able to warp between areas. This ensures that every 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 great server if you’re on the lookout for an excellent neighborhood, not too many rules, and freedom to construct and have fun.

Addstar

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

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

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

There’s all the time a lot happening on the Addstar server, and - aside from a brief intro - you’re just about thrown in at the deep finish, so this server might be better for older youngsters, 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 reasonably strict utility course of. To apply, you need to register on the forums, introduce yourself, and actively take part within the boards for a while. Only then can you apply to be whitelisted. An exception is made if you’re applying on behalf of your kid and they’re too younger to publish on the boards. On this case, you only have to make an introduction submit, and present that you've learn by means of the server rules and explained them to your chid.

This comparatively prolonged whitelisting course of, mixed with strict server guidelines, ensures that gamers are pretty effectively vetted before they play, and helps to foster a great community spirit.

The MineSquish server is very household-friendly and has all kinds of options to make the game secure to play for youngsters, together with a monster-free spawn (beginning) town, a rail and street system to make it easy to get around and avoid getting misplaced, carefully managed towns, and lockable chests, doorways and furnaces.

The server doesn’t have anti-griefing block safety, so there isn't any way to protect your construct from being demolished by others. Nevertheless, players are typically properly-behaved within the MineSquish neighborhood and the server admins are good at catching griefers, so griefing doesn’t are typically a big downside.

There are several worlds to explore, together with Persephone (the main survival world, where you build your house), a creative freebuild world, a hard-mode Exploration world for resource gathering that’s wiped each 2 months, a Skylands (floating islands) world, an enormous Construct world for constructing spectacular big buildings, and more.

Here is a good MineSquish starter guide for fogeys and young kids.

SafeCraft

SafeCraft - formerly Win Family Survival - is a small but rising family-pleasant server built by a devoted workforce of parents and kids within the UK. It uses whitelisting and strict filtering to make a kid-pleasant server where folks assist out gamers of all skills. The moderators are significantly open to helping out children on the autistic spectrum and youngsters with ADHD.

The server has a fun, lively feel to it with a fantastically colourful most important foyer (see screenshot above). The protected, welcoming environment means this server will enchantment to youngsters each young and previous. The server contains another good touches reminiscent of “Server Champion” awards and recognising birthdays, which add to the sense of neighborhood.

From the foyer you can reach a normal survival world (grief protection is included); the SafeCraft world (no hostile mobs - great for littler children); a world for useful resource gathering, and heaps of nice mini-games including Paintball, Block Hunt, hunger/survival video games, TNT Run and Skyblock. There are also a couple of spleef arenas in the foyer.

Overall, this is an efficient server for youths who want to play in a secure, welcoming atmosphere with an in depth-knit group.

Blocklandia

Blocklandia is a fun, family-pleasant whitelisted server that is suitable for teenagers of all ages (some players are as young as 4!). The moderators are very useful, and usually give you a guided tour if you first join. They may even provide that will help you build your first house!

The spawn (starting area) is themed as a large shipyard. Every ship takes you to a special land. Mainland is the principle survival world, whereas Peaceful is a safer mode with no hostile mobs or fall harm. There’s additionally a Artistic world, reached by way of a reasonably scorching air balloon.

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

A pleasant contact is the enormous library, just off the shipyard. You may write a book and add it to the library, as well as learn other people’s books.

Though the server doesn’t allow you to declare land within the survival worlds, it does use the LWC plugin which helps you to lock chests, doorways, furnaces and so on. In addition, there’s a really clear, detailed set of rules (that you have to read if you first connect), things like TNT and fireplace are usually banned, and the moderators are superb at sorting out any griefing points.

In case your kid is fairly new to Minecraft and wants to affix a helpful, welcoming group then Blocklandia is an efficient bet.

Famcraft

Famcraft was set up by mother and father who needed to be sure that kids had a safe place to play Minecraft on-line. It’s been operating for a couple of years and had developed a very good neighborhood of gamers, ranging in age from 5 to 77!

Famcraft shouldn't be whitelisted - just add survival.famcraft.com to your Minecraft client, and away you go. If you first join, you’ll most likely be offered a tour by one of many pleasant workers members. There are normally at the least a couple of employees online at any given moment.

The primary survival server is large, with a lot of great features.  All about minecraft  is a ravishing picket seaside village, with stargates (warps) that hyperlink off to numerous locations on the map. There are six often-altering random warps into wilderness where you possibly can mine and build; free farms in the event you need assets; cities to discover; a carnival; a sports activities stadium (with optionally available PvP); mazes; and tons of different points of interest. There are also many plugins that let you make cool stuff with signs and redstone, comparable to lifts, drawbridges, iron gates and hidden areas.

As well as pretty normal server parts, reminiscent of a foreign money system, a jobs system, and grief prevention with LWC and PreciousStones, Famcraft has some additional touches that give the server its personal unique, neighborhood feel.

For example, there are numerous clans that you would be able to be a part of to work on initiatives collectively, and there are additionally lots of giant participant statues to point out appreciation for useful players on the server.

The server workers also repeatedly stream family friendly music with Mixlr, which actually provides an element of enjoyable to the gameplay. They even host dance parties in a improbable dance area throughout the world!

Famcraft has a Mumble server, which many players use for voice chat while playing. There’s also a #famcraft IRC channel, which lets gamers chat with one another even when they’re not playing the game. All IRC chat also seems in the common Minecraft in-sport chat window.

As well as the primary survival world, there’s also a world that makes use of the FTB (FeedTheBeast) modpack for further fun and games.

The Famcraft staff are attentive, helpful and chatty, and make an important effort to make sure everyone seems to be enjoying safely and having enjoyable.

YAMS

YAMS - One more Minecraft Server - is a small family-pleasant server run by a dedicated workforce within the UK. It uses whitelisting; to apply for the whitelist, first register for the forums, then submit a whitelist request within the “Introduce and Whitelist Yourself” forum.

What I really like about YAMS is the thought that’s gone into setting up a sensible world. There’s a central spawn town with a large purchasing mall, and 4 satellite towns, reached via a comprehensive transport community. Every satellite city has its own distinctive feel and building code: for example, the buildings in a single city are built from cobblestone; one other town features wooden buildings, and so forth. (To construct in a town, you first need to point out you possibly can construct a pleasant building within the sandbox within the spawn city.)

As nicely because the towns, there are tons of sightseeing alternatives dotted around the land, together with a powerful coliseum (complete with PvP games), a college (in development), a theatre, a windmill, a maze, an commentary tower and plenty extra. There are additionally plenty of hidden issues to seek out all through the map.

YAMS does not have chest locking or grief protection; however the server has an in depth-knit community and a strict set of rules that help to maintain things running along properly. The server admin can also restore any stolen or griefed gadgets.

In case your kid likes taking part in closely with a staff inside a structured environment then they may probably get pleasure from this server.

Glad enjoying!

I hope you’ve discovered this information to family-pleasant Minecraft servers helpful, and that you find a fantastic server that you simply and your child can get pleasure from. Perhaps I’ll meet you on considered one of them!