Minecraft - internet safety

[CuppaTeawithaCookie]

I have a nearly 8 year old who has played Minecraft for the last 18+ months. He plays it, he watches YouTube videos about it, he does some clever stuff, and sorties I play it with him, but I am so far short of his skill level now. He is getting frustrated at always playing it on his own, and wants to join others’ servers. This is on the limits of my knowledge, and I have said no, as he is too young to play with strangers on the internet! Obviously he doesn’t understand why. So I have 2 questions:
how do I explain to him in an age appropriate way why he’s not allowed to do this?
how can I help him to continue to enjoy playing Minecraft with these boundaries in place?
thank you

Let him play with kids from school? DS is 10 and not allowed to play with strangers, only people he knows in real life. And only in the living room (ie not in private in his bedroom!)!

Thank you. How does this work in practice? Do they play at arranged times or just see who’s online when they want to play?

Both - he’ll sometimes come home from school saying he’s meeting X at a certain time. But usually if he goes on then a couple of friends are on there. He has a headset to talk to his friends which at some points I do wish I could send him to his room as it gets a bit loud and irritating. But then he has to be quieter and learn consideration so that’s good!
We and his friends’ parents all seem to be pretty loose with the switch, they all seem to be allowed to go on whenever. So that helps!

We also allow playing with specific friends. The kids just need to swap their user name/code and can play in each others worlds. Not public servers, although this has to be monitored, as ds will try and sneak on if he thinks he can get away with it. It results in an instant ban of devices if I catch him, so he doesn't normally try.