Minecraft - help me keep my kids safe?

[Magpiesalute]

My son who is 9 plays minecraft in single mode.

He’d like his sister (nearly 8) to join so they can play together online.

My research tells me to do this they’d have to do multiplayer. I don’t want them playing with or chatting with strangers. Is my only way to avoid this by paying for a Realm? Would that create a private World where only the two of them can play? Is there any other way?

They don’t get on a lot of the time, so i’m impressed that they want to work together to create a village.

I’m not particularly tech savvy so any help would be great.

What console are they playing on?

I've played with my partner on our separate laptops and connected privately, not had to pay for it.

One on an old iPhone(no sim, so can’t ring anyone) and one on an iPad.

My children can play I each other's worlds without being online. That's between an iPhone (which has a sim) and an Xbox. Possible between your two devices maybe?

Sadly I cannot give you advice on how they do it!

Thanks, hopefully someone else can tell me how to do that!

Sorry OP, no experience with Minecraft on iPhone/iPad, but I did find this:

www.google.com/amp/s/blogs.windows.com/devices/2015/09/18/how-to-play-multiplayer-minecraft-pocket-edition/amp/

Can you try that first set of instructions ("playing locally")?

Oooh thanks goodwinter! That looks like it might be the answer!

Mine play together offline...one controller each and a split screen. Wouldn't that work?

If anyone else can help that would be fab. I can’t find the ‘local server multiplayer’ in the settings of our app so not sure that’s going to be an option.