UKH

7 y/o and 5 y/o both want to play Minecraft, a couple of their mates at school play and seem to meet up in the game.

They haven’t played any other proper games. They would be using an iPad to play on. I’ve not played any games since lemmings in the 90’s.

What do I need to know to keep them safe and happy when playing?

What is Minecraft Realms, it’s $3.99/month, is that something they will want? Or is it essentially free after £6.99 download cost?

Im planning on getting on it and playing myself to figure out what is going on. I’ve got them a child Microsoft live account if that’s useful?

Can’t comment on specifics of Minecraft but this is quite a useful website if you want to get a feel of games and their content, we tend to review it and/or download and have a look as you are planing. 

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/minecraft

Eldest is in Y6 and over last two years school have done quite a bit about online gaming with them and how to stay safe - notably regarding chat functions - school sent a weblink a while ago will see if I can find it in my email later. 

We are currently not popular as we won’t let him play Fortnite which nearly all his friends have been allowed to….

As someone who grew up playing Minecraft I can help!

So the base game is completely free to play single player on the iPad when you have bought it.

Realms is the online multiplayer feature - so your kids could play online with their friends (...or potentially anyone else...) only if you have this subscription. Generally it's fairly well policed though and unless your kids go looking for trouble they won't come across it..

The other thing to watch out for is that things like skins (i.e. how your character looks) and maps (pre built worlds) are available through microtransactions and cost real money. There won't be an off button for this so you'll have to make sure they know not to buy these!

The other Minecraft specific thing is if they ever want to play it on a laptop/computer there are two versions of the game, and these are bought separately from the iPad version.

Bedrock edition has better safety features and online stuff is much more regulated. Java edition allows access to completely unmonitored 3rd party servers and is generally a bit more wild west

Might be worth getting them used to being quite/very disciplined and structured about screen-time limits early doors with these completely immersive games, lest they end up some years down the road playing Fortnite for hour after hour and not really understanding why they should stop (a mistake we made with ours).

Allegedly! 

Our children (now 10 and 12) play minecraft on a desktop, 12 yo plays on-line with friends in 'Survival' mode, where they can be attacked and die and so on. My 10 yo would find that distressing and she just plays in 'creative'. Both really love it and don't get tempted to buy any additional stuff. My son gets books from the library and works out how to build / find things, then passes this onto his friends. It's not all bad.

Realms is good but might not be best suited for their ages.

With Realms, you pay for a private, always available online world and you can control who is allowed to connect.

Without Realms, you can still play "online" together, but one of the kids' devices will host the world, and that person needs to be online and the other kid joins them.  So, one can play without the other online but not the other way around.

Given their age, I would start with the at home multiplayer.  Pay attention to taking backups of their map in case they mess things up and get upset.

It's a great game.  I used to really enjoy playing it - give it a go as well.

Something our kids used to love was Minecraft Build Battles.  Join a shared world in creative mode.   You need to set it up as a blank field with a HUGE wall in the middle.  You give them a task (build a cake, or a castle, or a .....) and 10 minutes to build.  Each is on one side and does their build.  Then, the parent joins the world and flies about to declare the winner.

Does your kids' school use Minecraft Education?  If so, they might already have access through whatever IT system the school uses.  It could be a vagary of the Welsh education system, but both my kids had access through the 'Hwb' system (also Google Classroom, MS Office etc).  As well as getting assignments set by teachers, they used it at home for creative and survival mode.

They were able to play online with friends (sending join codes for worlds they built).

Top tip from a minecraft parent - keep them away from minecraft content on YouTube - mine kids now addicted to this and (horror) have expressed desires to pursue YTing as a career.

I have managed to interest the eldest in coding in python through minecraft though. 

Too late, that’s how they found Minecraft. I find the YT content utter tripe.

Fairly common with kids, this. My youngest watches people playing Geometry Dash on YT. Seems moronic. I say, why do you want to watch others playing a game? He goes, you watch a lot of cycling. I lack a comeback. The architectural detours? Maybe it's equally moronic.

Read this as some one wanting their children to play with Mein Kampf.

The liberal in me simply said “mustn’t judge”

Prepare for obsession like you’ve never know.  There’re great Minecraft tutorials and epic build videos for kids on YouTube, but for the love of god don’t let them watch any JJ & Mikey Turtle or Milo & Chip videos.  You may smash your TV in rage at the annoyance.  They make Blippi look like quality entertainment.