Minecraft

[probablynotthesame]

Hi all just looking for opinions. My DS is almost 6 and is desperate to be allowed to play minecraft, the age suggestion is 9+.

I'm in two minds, one that the age limit must be there for a reason, for mild violence reasons I believe rather than language but he watches kids YouTube and watches gamers play on it.

I tried coming to a compromise when he first asked for it about a year ago and downloaded block city which is 4+ which he's got on well with but still asks for 'the real thing' no fooling him!

So what do you think? Am I being a bit precious? For context apparently his friends have it and also I'm not a gamer so have no idea? I believe it's good for 'coding'

Minecraft is 7?

Use it on creative there is no violence

Both my ds's played Minecraft at that age and still do (14 & 18 now!) They love it and have learned lots from it. As far as I know they have not encountered any unpleasantness on there. It's possible to have a private world that nobody else can access I think.
I'd recommend it for the hours of pleasure it's given my two.

As above, use on creative, completely harmless and really quite clever what they create!

Great thank you I'll tell him the good news 🙂

Yes he's definitely old enough to use it

And use on creative mode

My 6 yo DS plays for a few hours a week on the above mentioned creative setting. It’s a good bribe if you need some leverage…

Another agree that it's a good game at that age. My two absolutely love it and I enjoy its ambient soundtrack! I think it took them a little while to get the hang of, a careful selection of "how to" guides and gameplay videos on YouTube showed them the way though (Mojang's channel is useful there).

Thanks for the reassurance I didn't know about the creative mode, I'll make sure he has it on that.

My DS is 8 and has been playing for a few years but only on the basis that he doesn't chat to other players.

I've recently allowed my 6 year old to have it on peaceful mode, in a private world and with audio off. He has his own account set up on the PlayStation with strict controls - DH is the Internet savvy one.

Definitely a good age to start on minecraft! The beauty of the game is how diverse it is- my kids started playing it on the pc aged 4, and DH and I play online with our friends as well. If he has it on a pc or laptop he will also learn very quickly how to use a mouse and keyboard at the same time.

Even if you don't have peaceful it's not violent the only risk imo is chatting to strangers so make sure he has that turned off but don't insist on peaceful if he asks as you can't progress in the same way.

Mine started at 6.we didn't have any tablet here until then.

It's lovely. They absolutely love it.

It's great for that age. I started playing too, it's amazing. Very relaxing and creative. Bit of fun playing against users on servers. Only rule in our house is absolutely no communication with other users. My 4 yr old played it with great enjoyment.

My neice begged and begged her mum for it, who kept saying no. We let her try it here on console, she found the controls really fiddly and didn't like the creepers. She's stopped asking for it 😂

Yes 6 is fine for creative mode. It’s basically digital Lego in 3D. My ds9 started about 6 1/2 and his computer literacy is amazing now- touch typing while building some contraption with the mouse!

I am the most over protective when it come to online, to the extent that I think my friends think I am virtue signally. Minecraft on creative, on a private server is fine. Depending on the devise there are lots and lots of controls which if you set them up right means your little one is safe.
The real problem is they don’t shut up about it and explain in excruciating detail what they are doing.

minecraft is a complete waste of time, but as above, is pretty safe.

Just stick to the habit of having your child playing in the room where you are, not their bedroom.

@onlyhereforthecake that's a good point I didn't think about that, I'll make sure that's a condition so that further down the line it's just expected.

Some good points raised here thank you everyone. He will be playing it on the iPad so I hope it's as beneficial (learning wise) as if he would be using a keyboard and mouse?

My 6yo twins play minecraft in creative mode. It's fine, they do it on a pc and it's given them really good mouse/ keyboard skills in comparison to their older siblings

Blatant piggy back here.
DS has just finished the Hour of Code Minecraft coding thing. What should he do next - another Hour of Code or something else?

That would be OK for me in creative mode. Not really survival or adventure mode though. Also, I would not allow online play.

Creative mode is great! When we were doing home learning DS use it quite a bit to construct a Saxon Hall, a fairground, etc when arts and crafts stuff was needed.
The bloody YouTube videos are the bane of my life though

Using on survival is ok as long as you set it to peaceful. You can still die though if you fall off something or walk into lava. If your kid is worried about losing something then not for them yet and stick to creative.