If your kid has spent some time playing Minecraft on their own — or with other family members on your home network — they will probably reach a point where they’ll want to play with others online.
Playing Minecraft on a public server can take the game to a whole new level. For one thing, there’s a new community of like-minded players to make friends with and collaborate with. This will help your kid learn social skills, such as cooperating, compromising and problem-solving.
In addition, most servers feature huge, prebuilt worlds, with amazing cities and buildings, transport networks, and mini-games for your kid to explore and enjoy.
Finally, most servers extend Minecraft using lots of server plugins, which allow for a whole range of extra gameplay features, including money systems, jobs, role-playing elements and teleports. (You don’t need to modify your Minecraft game to add these features; they’re all handled by the server.)
By now you’re probably thinking: This is all very well, but aren’t public servers a dangerous place for my kid? If they go on a server, how will I know they will be safe from bad language, bullying, or online predators?
Of course, no public server is 100 percent safe, but there are some fantastic Minecraft servers out there that cater especially to kids and families. (That said, if you’d rather set up a completely private server for your kid and their close friends, check out Minecraft Realms.)
In this guide, you’ll discover eleven of the best family-friendly Minecraft servers out there. You’ll also learn a bit more about how Minecraft servers work, and how to connect to these servers and start playing online.
At this point, I should point out that this guide is for the PC/Mac version of Minecraft only. While there are some family-friendly servers for the Pocket Edition and Xbox versions of Minecraft, the vast majority of servers work with the PC/Mac version.
So without further ado, let’s dive into the world of online, family-friendly Minecraft! We’ll start by looking at some important concepts related to public Minecraft servers.
Key server concepts you need to know
Here are a few key concepts and terms that are worth knowing before you join a public server:
- Servers vs. worlds: Usually, a single public Minecraft server has several worlds that you can jump between. For example, there’s often a main survival world, another creative-mode world, and possibly a third world for mini-games. Usually there’s a central hub or lobby, with warp points that let you teleport between the different worlds.
- PvP and PvE: PvP stands for “player vs. player”, while PvE stands for “player vs. environment”. Most public servers — especially family-friendly ones — are PvE; that is, you battle monsters, not players. However, some servers have special PvP arenas where you can fight other players. (Typically, if you die in a PvP arena, you don’t lose all your stuff, as you would in a regular survival world. It’s just for fun.)
- Spawn: Usually your player will spawn (start) at a set point in the world, usually referred to simply as “spawn”. Typically this is in, or near, a central town or city, or in some sort of lobby area. You can usually type the command
/spawnto return to your spawn point. - Rules: Nearly all servers have rules as to what you can and cannot do, and — as you’d imagine — family-friendly servers tend to have a big list of strict rules. Make sure you read all the rules thoroughly. (When you first join some servers, they actually force you to walk past lots of signs with the rules on!) If you don’t follow the rules, you can be banned temporarily or even permanently from the server.
- Griefing and grief protection: A big potential problem on public servers is griefing; that is, demolishing other players’ buildings or stealing their stuff. Many — but not all — servers use various plugins to stop griefing. Typically these plugins let you lock your chests, doors and furnaces, and you can also claim a patch of land as your own — this means that nobody else can create or break blocks within your claim. In addition, griefing is always forbidden in the server rules; griefers are warned and then banned, and most server admins can “roll back” your building to the state it was in before it was griefed.
- Text chat: Minecraft has built-in text chat (the ‘T’ key), which is the default way that your kid will communicate with other players. Chat can be public or private (that is, one-to-one). Obviously your kid will need some reading ability to participate in chat, although you can help them if you’re playing online too. Most family-friendly servers employ automatic filtering to prevent swearing in text chat. As with all online chat, make sure you remind your kid never to give out personal details when chatting.
- Voice chat: Some servers link up with voice chat servers such as Mumble, TeamSpeak or Ventrilo to enable players to speak with each other while playing. If you allow your kid to use voice chat then obviously you want to be careful about who they’re talking to, and what they’re talking about!
- Server commands: To get the most out of online playing, you’ll need to give various commands to the server as you play. You give a command by pressing the
/(slash) key, followed by the command name and, sometimes, some extra text. For example,/sethometypically sets your home point to where you’re currently standing, while/hometeleports you to your home point. The commands vary from server to server, but you’ll soon get the hang of them. - Using mods: If you’ve added mods to your Minecraft client, be careful when connecting to servers, since most servers ban at least some mods — particularly those that let you cheat, of course. Usually, mods such as OptiFine — which simply makes your game run more smoothly — are OK.
How to join a server
Joining a public Minecraft server is very easy. Just open the Minecraft launcher and click Play to run the main Minecraft game. Once you reach the main title screen, you click the Multiplayer button, then click the Add Server button to add the server.
Now type a name for the server in the Server Name box, then type the server address in the Server Address box. Typically this will be a domain name, such as mc.intercraften.org, or an IP address, such as 1.2.3.4. Then click Done to add the server to your server list:
To add a server, click Add Server and enter the server details. You can then connect to the server with the Join Server button.
Then it’s simply a matter of clicking a server in the list, and clicking the Join Server button to connect to it.
Now let’s look at a couple of issues that may come up when joining a server.
Whitelisting
You can divide public Minecraft servers into two types:
- Whitelisted servers are protected by a whitelist — that is, a list of usernames that are allowed to join the server. To join a whitelisted server, you need to apply to have your Minecraft username added to the whitelist. Typically, this involves filling out a form and waiting a few hours or days. Most servers require you to put in separate applications for yourself and for your kid. Once you’re on the whitelist, you join the server as described above.
- Non-whitelisted servers do not have a whitelist, which means anyone can join the server simply by entering the server’s address in their Minecraft client, as shown above.
Applying for a whitelisted server can be a bit of a drag — especially when you have an impatient eight-year-old tugging at your sleeve — but it does provide an extra degree of reassurance that all the players on the server are known to the server administrators.
Server and client versions
One thing to watch out for when joining a server is making sure the version number of your Minecraft client (game) matches the version number of the server. Generally speaking, the versions have to match, or you won’t be able to connect.
For example, the current version of Minecraft is 1.7.9, but many servers are still running 1.7.2, or even 1.6.4. Sometimes the server’s website tells you what version they’re running, but sometimes the only way to tell is to try it and see. If you get an error message when using the 1.7.9 client, try the 1.7.2 client instead.
Fortunately it’s easy to switch to different versions of the Minecraft client. In the Minecraft launcher, you can click New Profile to create different profiles that use any Minecraft version you like. Then, just select the profile you want to use from the drop-down list in the launcher, and click Play.
It’s easy to set up the Minecraft launcher with profiles for different versions. Here I’ve set up two profiles: one for 1.7.2 and another for 1.7.9. (OptiFine is a handy mod that makes your Minecraft run faster.) The “Use version” dropdown in the topmost window lets you choose the version.
The list of family-friendly servers
Now that you know the basics of playing online with Minecraft, here are 11 excellent Minecraft servers for you and your kid to play on.
I have personally played on all of these servers. They are listed in no particular order; I think they are all very good, and every single one comes across as being suitable and welcoming for kids, parents and grandparents alike!
You’ll find that each server has its own unique “feel”, so it’s worth exploring a few of them to find out which one feels right for you.
Cubeville
Cubeville is a really nice server that’s committed to being family-friendly. You don’t need to apply to join — just enter cubeville.org into your Minecraft client — but the server is well policed and has a good, clear list of rules. It also has a thorough tutorial when you first join.
The enormous Cubeville world has a big central city, as well as lots of smaller towns and settlements dotted all over the map. There’s an amazing range of fun things to explore and nice people to meet. It’s fairly crowded, so to build you’ll need to catch a ride on the transport system and head out to the edge of the map.
Cubeville also features a neat money system with quests to earn cash; clever automated shops; and a great transport network. It also has land and chest protection so you can claim your own little corner of Cubeville for yourself.
Towncraft
Update 14 April 2019: Towncraft has now shut down. The Towncraft staff members have set up another family-friendly server called Ohanacraft that still adheres to Towncraft’s guiding principles.
Update 10 August 2020: Towncraft is back up and running! It has the same rules (and server name) as before. Yay!
Towncraft is not whitelisted, so anyone can join — just enter play.towncraft.us into your Minecraft client. It also has a TeamSpeak server for voice chat; you can find the IP address on the Towncraft website.
What I like about Towncraft is that, rather than just being a standard world to explore and build in, it has a bit of a narrative going on. A meteor has wiped out the world, and it’s up to you and your friends on the server to rebuild it. At the start of the game, you pick a trade, such as hunter, farmer, blacksmith or merchant, then as you improve your skills in that trade over time, you unlock new abilities.
Towncraft doesn’t tend to get too busy, making for a relaxed crafting experience. There are parents and kids playing on the server, and people are generally are friendly and helpful.
The server uses the Zombie Apocalypse plugin; this randomly makes a horde of zombies appear around the player at night, which you must defeat to receive a reward. Obviously, younger players might get a bit freaked out by this, but it’s good fun for older kids.
Towncraft uses the Grief Prevention plugin so you can protect your house and contents from griefing by other players.
Kolgrath, the Towncraft admin, has put together a player guide, as well as a handy parent’s guide to Towncraft that is worth a read.
Intercraften
Intercraften is a very popular family-friendly Minecraft server. It’s well planned out, and has extremely helpful moderators that are good at sorting out problems and looking after everyone, parents and kids alike.
The server is whitelisted, so to join you first need to fill out the simple application form.
Intercraften is a huge server with several worlds, including New Survival (the current main world), a CTF (Capture the Flag) world, a peaceful world, a creative world, a mining world, and lots more.
The server has a money system, along with jobs — such as fisherman, brewer and woodcutter — that you can carry out in order to earn coins. You can use the cash to buy stuff in shops, and also to claim chunks of land so that others can’t grief your builds. If you do get griefed, the moderators are very careful to set everything right again (and ban the offender from the server).
As well as doing stuff with the usual server commands, such as /spawn, /sethome and /home, you can also use the user-friendly Intercraften Menu book (given free when you join) to pick jobs, perform commands and play mini-games.
The Sandlot
The Sandlot is a whitelisted, family-friendly Minecraft server that’s been running since December 2011. It’s operated by a former schoolteacher, and has a good set of rules and filters in place to prevent any abusive behaviour.
What I like about The Sandlot is the good balance of different worlds available. There’s Semi-Vanilla Survival, which is pretty close to a standard Minecraft world, with the sensible addition of Grief Prevention and also a virtual currency system (tied to gold ingots) so that players can set up shops.
A really great world for younger kids is Easy Survival. If Semi-Vanilla Survival is Scrabble, this is Junior Scrabble. Rather than having to spend ages digging around for resources and items, kids can choose a job (such as farming) to earn money, then spend their money to buy items in a big mall in the centre. This makes for a much easier, more relaxed gameplay style. Great idea.
Other worlds in The Sandlot include a Creative world, and lots of PvP game worlds including hunger games (based loosely on the books and movies), spleef and so on. There’s also a skyblock world (a world with floating islands and lots of challenges).
All of these worlds are accessed via The Lobby, a fantastic building based on Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series (check out the secret passages!). This, as well as many of the other Sandlot worlds, are beautifully designed, creating a fun, welcoming environment for your kid.
CrazyPig
CrazyPig is a small family-friendly Minecraft server with a great community. It was initially set up by a UK parent for his son, but is now open to all. It is not whitelisted; to join, just add play.crazypig.net to your Minecraft client.
CrazyPig uses a “belt” system to rank players by how long they’ve played on the server. As you spend more time on the server, you’re automatically given belts of higher rank, which in turn give you access to certain worlds, as well as a greater number of “homes” that you can set and warp to.
There’s also a currency system, as well as a simple virtual marketplace where players can buy and sell items.
As with most servers, CrazyPig features several interconnected worlds. There’s a central lobby area from which you can choose a world to warp to. There’s the Main World where you’ll build your house and spend most of your time; a Creative World (you need to be Green Belt or higher to access it); a Games World with a giant chess set; and an Extra Hard world if you’re feeling brave!
Although it’s not whitelisted, CrazyPig has a friendly, helpful community of players, and employs the Grief Prevention plugin to stop players from griefing. It also has pretty good automatic language filters to eliminate swearing.
A fairly novel aspect of CrazyPig is the concept of regions. The main world is automatically divided up into regions; when you join you’re automatically added to the newest region, but you can warp between regions. This ensures that each area of the world doesn’t get overcrowded. It’s a bit confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a pretty good system!
CrazyPig is a great server if you’re looking for a good community, not too many rules, and freedom to build and have fun.
Addstar
Addstar is a busy Australian server that is kid-friendly. It’s not whitelisted so anyone can join, but it is heavily moderated and comes with LWC protection (for locking things) and Grief Prevention (for claiming land so it can’t be griefed).
Addstar follows the familiar format of a central spawn town, with warps that take you off to other worlds. There are several portals into a fairly standard survival world, as well as a portal to a creative world with tons of amazing creations (only donators to the server can build here).
In the spawn town you’ll also find warps to tons of mini-games, including BlockHunt, a maze, parkour, spleef, CTF (capture the flag), survival games, and even Connect 4, checkers and chess!
There’s always a lot happening on the Addstar server, and — apart from a brief intro — you’re pretty much thrown in at the deep end, so this server is probably better for older kids, or those who already know Minecraft and Minecraft servers well. That said, the staff are always helpful and friendly.
MineSquish
MineSquish is a whitelisted server with a fairly strict application process. To apply, you need to register on the forums, introduce yourself, and actively participate in the forums 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 young to post on the forums. In this case, you only need to make an introduction post, and show that you have read through the server rules and explained them to your chid.
This relatively lengthy whitelisting process, combined with strict server rules, ensures that players are fairly well vetted before they play, and helps to foster a good community spirit.
The MineSquish server is very family-friendly and has all sorts of features to make the game safe to play for youngsters, including a monster-free spawn (starting) town, a rail and road system to make it easy to get around and avoid getting lost, carefully managed towns, and lockable chests, doors and furnaces.
The server doesn’t have anti-griefing block protection, so there is no way to protect your build from being demolished by others. However, players are generally well-behaved in the MineSquish community and the server admins are good at catching griefers, so griefing doesn’t tend to be a big problem.
There are several worlds to explore, including Persephone (the main survival world, where you build your home), a creative freebuild world, a hard-mode Exploration world for resource gathering that’s wiped every 2 months, a Skylands (floating islands) world, a Big Build world for building impressive big structures, and more.
Here is a good MineSquish starter guide for parents and young kids.
SafeCraft
SafeCraft — formerly Win Family Survival — is a small but growing family-friendly server built by a dedicated team of parents and kids in the UK. It uses whitelisting and strict filtering to make a kid-friendly server where people help out players of all abilities. The moderators are particularly open to helping out kids on the autistic spectrum and kids with ADHD.
The server has a fun, lively feel to it with a fantastically colourful main lobby (see screenshot above). The safe, welcoming environment means this server will appeal to kids both young and old. The server includes some other nice touches such as “Server Champion” awards and recognising birthdays, which add to the sense of community.
From the lobby you can reach a standard survival world (grief protection is included); the SafeCraft world (no hostile mobs — great for littler kids); a world for resource gathering, and heaps of great mini-games including Paintball, Block Hunt, hunger/survival games, TNT Run and Skyblock. There are also a couple of spleef arenas in the lobby.
Overall, this is a good server for kids who prefer to play in a safe, welcoming environment with a close-knit community.
Blocklandia
Blocklandia is a fun, family-friendly whitelisted server that is suitable for kids of all ages (some players are as young as 4!). The moderators are very helpful, and usually give you a guided tour when you first join. They may even offer to help you build your first house!
The spawn (starting area) is themed as a large shipyard. Each ship takes you to a different land. Mainland is the main survival world, while Peaceful is a safer mode with no hostile mobs or fall damage. There’s also a Creative world, reached via a pretty hot air balloon.
Blocklandia has a money system based on “shillings”. There are plenty of jobs that will earn you shillings, including weaponsmith, digger, builder, sorcerer, alchemist, and even pirate!
A nice touch is the enormous library, just off the shipyard. You can write a book and add it to the library, as well as read other people’s books.
Although the server doesn’t let you claim land in the survival worlds, it does use the LWC plugin which lets you lock chests, doors, furnaces and so on. In addition, there’s a very clear, detailed set of rules (that you have to read when you first connect), things like TNT and fire are generally banned, and the moderators are very good at sorting out any griefing issues.
If your kid is fairly new to Minecraft and wants to join a helpful, welcoming community then Blocklandia is a good bet.
Famcraft
Famcraft was set up by parents who wanted to make sure that kids had a safe place to play Minecraft online. It’s been running for a couple of years and had developed a really good community of players, ranging in age from 5 to 77!
Famcraft is not whitelisted — just add survival.famcraft.com to your Minecraft client, and away you go. When you first join, you’ll probably be offered a tour by one of the friendly staff members. There are usually at least a couple of staff online at any given moment.
The main survival server is huge, with lots of great features. The main spawn area is a beautiful wooden seaside village, with stargates (warps) that link off to various locations on the map. There are six frequently-changing random warps into wilderness where you can mine and build; free farms if you need resources; cities to explore; a carnival; a sports stadium (with optional PvP); mazes; and tons of other attractions. There are also many plugins that let you make cool stuff with signs and redstone, such as lifts, drawbridges, iron gates and hidden areas.
As well as fairly standard server elements, such as a currency system, a jobs system, and grief prevention with LWC and PreciousStones, Famcraft has some extra touches that give the server its own unique, community feel.
For example, there are a large number of clans that you can join to work on projects together, and there are also lots of giant player statues to show appreciation for helpful players on the server.
The server staff also regularly stream family friendly music with Mixlr, which really adds an element of fun to the gameplay. They even host dance parties in a fantastic dance area within 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 players chat with each other even when they’re not playing the game. All IRC chat also appears in the regular Minecraft in-game chat window.
As well as the main survival world, there’s also a world that uses the FTB (FeedTheBeast) modpack for extra fun and games.
The Famcraft staff are attentive, helpful and chatty, and make a great effort to make sure everyone is playing safely and having fun.
YAMS
YAMS — Yet Another Minecraft Server — is a small family-friendly server run by a dedicated team in the UK. It uses whitelisting; to apply for the whitelist, first register for the forums, then post a whitelist request in the “Introduce and Whitelist Yourself” forum.
What I really like about YAMS is the thought that’s gone into setting up a realistic world. There’s a central spawn town with a large shopping mall, and four satellite towns, reached via a comprehensive transport network. Each satellite town has its own unique feel and building code: for example, the buildings in one town are built from cobblestone; another town features wooden buildings, and so on. (To build in a town, you first need to show you can build a nice building in the sandbox within the spawn town.)
As well as the towns, there are tons of sightseeing opportunities dotted around the land, including an impressive coliseum (complete with PvP games), a university (in development), a theatre, a windmill, a maze, an observation tower and lots more. There are also lots of hidden things to find throughout the map.
YAMS does not have chest locking or grief protection; however the server has a close-knit community and a strict set of rules that help to keep things running along nicely. The server admin can also restore any stolen or griefed items.
If your kid likes playing closely with a team inside a structured environment then they will likely enjoy this server.
Happy playing!
I hope you’ve found this guide to family-friendly Minecraft servers useful, and that you find a great server that you and your kid can enjoy. Maybe I’ll meet you on one of them! (My Minecraft username is FigNoodle.)
I’d also like to say a big Thank You! to all the helpful staff and players on these servers who answered all my questions while I was writing this guide.
If you have a favourite family-safe Minecraft server that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Finally, if you liked reading this article, you might also enjoy my list of kid-friendly Minecraft YouTubers, which helps your kid watch Minecraft videos on YouTube while staying safe!
Thanks for reading. 🙂
I appreciate the work that you have done here, and I have visited some of these fine sites before finding your article. The article is well written and much needed. I compliment the staff and owners of these sites. Although I staff on one of these servers, my child likes to play on other servers, and he is safe there. That is the very best assurance that I can get, or give.
Thanks for your comment Markdoon. It’s really good that so many staff take the time to run these servers, and to keep them safe and fun for families to play on. 🙂
The servers shown here look awesome.
We too run a Whitelisted PC Minecraft Server for children on the Autistic Spectrum…their family and friends. The server was designed by and built for my aspie grandson aged 9.
We have moderators on at all times, multi worlds, anti griefing, creative and survival. Free build. No plots. No bullying.
Spectrumcraft is a small community of friendly kind players. We are looking for like minded players looking for fun, to play in safety and without bullying.
If you a family member or friend is on the spectrum and or homeschooled… Please come and join us!
Please come take a look or contact us for more details.
http://www.spectrumcraft.uk. – email: aspergerkidsrule@aol.com
Many people do not understand how bad the hate towards kids on servers have been. On many popular servers, people see children as free kills and will even tell them: Get good scrub or Get Rekt and learn to play. these are mostly dedicated teenagers with gaming equipment they bought. now before you say anything, they don’t hate kids. Kids on those servers will cheat by using illegal mods and say strange things that retract from gameplay. I have to say, those are in fact very friendly servers. Also, those cheats aren’t as simple as doing a command but going on the Internet and looking up “Minecraft Hacks” and cheat on servers. This is a bannable offense on almost all servers and many children come to do that. Don’t get yourself wrong, children really aren’t that bad. they want to have fun on those servers but when they see people kill them easily, they can get pretty mad. They older fan base has been pretty mad against these small children. The children don’t understand some games and will ask others for help but be called noobs entire games and target them. Not only that, but many children go on YouTube to watch others play the game like popular Youtubers and many of them swear and children will learn those words. CAPTAINSPARKLEZ is actually not a very child safe Youtube channel and will swear often. Children are called PrePubes and squeakers and are hated to be heard on voicechats. Many Tweens act as mature as they can and when they become trusted they reveal their age. These big servers I talk about have THOUSANDS of players online at any given time and are full of swearers and even moderators or chat filters cannot stop them. I beg all parents with children playing Minecraft please learn the truth and the stereotyping that Minecraft has gone under. Teens are embarrasef that they play Minecraft because of all the stereotyping it has gone under as a little kid game.
Interesting insights Rob – thanks for posting. Definitely good to have separate Minecraft servers for kids!
My 11 year old son and his friends love the site Towny Minions. My son has gone on this site for about 2 years. I have tried to be patient but the owners, admins, and moderators, as well as other site players continue to swear at my son, make negative comments against people with with special needs, and make inappropriate racial and religious comments. I would not reccommend this popular server to anyone. If the role models are doing these things what will their followers do?
Thanks for your comment Susan. After a brief look at Towny Minions, it doesn’t look like it’s designed to be specifically child-friendly. Perhaps your son could try some of the servers in this article? You shouldn’t have any problems with bad language etc on these servers.
Intercraften is indeed a great server, but a lot needs to be changed. Please read my “review” of the server for more information. http://on.fb.me/1oJv8yx
Nathaniel, thanks for your comment. You clearly had a bad experience with Intercraften. Personally I have really enjoyed my time on their server so far, and have found the moderators to be especially friendly and helpful. If the situation changes, I’ll be sure to post back here!
Thanks for the shoutout – I am an admin on Addstar MC and owner of the server with my husband, wish this list was around when we first looked for a server for our kids. We couldn’t find a good family friendly place to play and that was how the server came to exsist.
You’re welcome! Thanks for running a great server – my son and I were having lots of fun playing on it last weekend. 🙂
i really enjoyed towncraft. the survival and game island were my favorite parts
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you liked playing on the Towncraft server. 🙂
Yeah! My fav is Towncraft, I has so much friends, I have learned some new minecraft things like banner pattern in Towncraft!
i play on this server called mcmagic (ip is mcmagic.us) i wont give to much away it is family friendly that when something bad is said in chat it is cleared and the staff are so kind and helpful, it has 2 public servers wich are main and creative a mini-game server that is a W.I.P (arcade) and a server where the moderators build things ,to be put onto the main server, (not public) it is for people all over the world to play on and enjoy 🙂
Thanks for your comment! MCMagic looks like a great server. I love the Disney World world 🙂
can i use your SEVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I never realized there were other servers actually geared toward family friendliness and safety for kids. When my 7 year old first discovered mc I was appalled at the language allowed in chat. So she and I began our own server with the primary focus on safety from bullying and inappropriate topics.
Is it possible for you to review our server, you will find the staff friendly and helpful.
mc.imperial-realm.som
sorry, it’s .com*
Question I can’t connect to domain names
Hi, I have a strange problem, I can’t connect to servers using domain names. I can connect to servers using an ip:port though.
So could someone provide me with an ip:port for cubeville and/or help me figure why I can’t connect to domain names.
Thanks
I’d like to point out that the staff of FamCraft are very corrupt. They banned me from their server and forums for having a different ideology.
Thanks for your comment RetroVolpe. I’m sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Famcraft. I’ve played on there a fair bit with my son and haven’t experienced any problems personally.
Well, I’d posted a very formal report to the staff who’d banned me about their behavior, got no reply, instead a perma-ban. Tisk tisk.
Hi Retro,
I am the co-owner of FamCraft. I have to say that there are reasons as to why you were banned. We follow a strict procedure before banning a player. If you were banned from forums as well, that only states that you have broken many rules, in game and on the forums. We can’t make everyone happy. Our main goal is the safety and comfort of kids and parents. We do our best to ensure everyone is having fun, and drama is pulled away from the server. If you’d like for me to review your case as I’m unsure of your IGN, I can, though I am certain there are reasons for staff banning you. Everything is logged and recorded for reasons like such.
Ok, FamCraft is my FAVE server. They ban for the kids protection. Maybe try pleaing on the webiste? They are really accepting, if you try =)
Famcraft is not corrupt at all. I am a Helper on there and if you were banned, you were banned for a good reason.
Nope. Not necessarily. I must have caught a FamCraft staff member on a bad day, because I was banned with no warning after playing there for months and sinking hundreds of hours into my elaborate island build. The situation: My Saudi Arabian friend innocently asked for clarification on a rule that he didn’t understand and was given a stern warning; the staff member assumed he was being sarcastic and belligerent. I tried gently to explain that English is not my friend’s first language, and that his question was asked in earnest and not meant to offend. My friend made the mistake of asking the question again, was told “We don’t need your type around here,” and immediately banned. I said, “Wait! Please listen — we mean no offense! He is trying to understand you, but he is from Saudi Arabia and doesn’t understand what you’re saying!” The staff member wrote something to the effect of “We don’t need you around here either,” and the next instant I was banned too. That was it. I never appealed the ban because why in heaven’s name would I EVER want to subject myself, not to mention my friend, to a site run by corrupt, power-hungry, juvenile JERKS?
For what it’s worth, I’m a college educated mother in her 40’s. Take my word for it, FamCraft is family UNfriendly — and racist!
Question I want a server that my son and his friend can play on. But I want it to be like servers I see out there. I just don’t want them playing with other pplz. Help me plz.
wow love it!! but i HATE whitelisted servers.
As a moderator on one of the whitelisted servers listed above, I can say that the whitelist forms/requirements are usually very small, and are put in place as our first line of defense against griefers 🙂
o desy u can buy realms for your kids; only invited friends will be able to play on it ur welcome for the info
Have you ever checked out the Family-Friendly server nyvaria? I think it’s pretty good, not whitelisted, has alot of different worlds (e.g skyblock, survival, creative ect.). If you could check it out, that’d be great… It has an economy system… also, the ip is nyvaria.net and the website is http://www.nyvaria.net It is run by the player captbunzo, because he wanted to mame a safe server for his kids…
thanks!
It’s awesome that there are servers out there that are family friendly. My parents and I recently began hosting our own public server with the exact same intentions as the servers listed in your list. We have it set up as an “economy” type server with eight different worlds to explore and play in. You have to be white-listed in order to join, and it’s 100% family oriented with friendly/mature staff. Check us out if you’re interested @ 23.94.150.117
Cool 🙂 Is there a website for your server where people can check it out?
Hi Matt,
Unfortunately we currently don’t have a web site for you. We are still in the process of setting things up as we are fairly new. But our server is pretty much 100% complete so don’t hesitate to try it out 🙂 you will need to be white-listed so just leave me your in game name here and we can white-list you 🙂
We now have a simple info web site set up for our server:
https://sites.google.com/site/jeeperzcreeperzinfo/home
I like the idea but when I try to get in it wont let me
Have you contacted the server admins? Many servers are whitelisted; for these you’ll need to get approved first.
I am so glad I found this article and all the helpful posts! I have purposefully been stalling, not allowing my kids (9 & 7) to play online because I am IT savvy and am aware of the pitfalls there.
I knew that kid-friendly servers existed but trying to understand the requirements and terminology was somewhat frustrating (with a 9 year old tugging at your shirt) and so many of you can understand the relief I know have after finding this article.
This is how the online world should be… always. Thanks to all.
Thanks for your comment Tom! I’m really pleased that the article helped.
Hmm.. struggling to find a family – safe Pocket Edition server… any suggestions? All the standard MCPE server lists don’t use family or kid safe as a tag.
I’ve been wondering that too, Tom! Will keep a look-out. If you find any please let me know!
Is there a way to block chat altogether?
Kinda – you can hide chat: http://rickysays.com/disable-minecraft-chat
Weird that there isn’t a family friendly server that just blocks chat…
I think it would be hard to run any online Minecraft server with no chat, since you need to communicate in order to play together and collaborate effectively.
One of the main advantages of a family-friendly server, of course, is that they moderate chat and will exclude players who abuse the chat system.
Totally understand, but if they are banned for using the chat inappropriately it may already be too late.
Thank you for the clarification!
I have a really nice family friendly server that kids of all ages can play on! It is called HazeCraft and it is a towns server. The ip is play.hazecraft.net. Hosted by Ready2Frag who give us excellent service, HazeCraft is one of the best servers out there for kids! They have a unique ranks system and a great economy. The owner of the server is yeupho. Basically, when you first join you have to do a test to make sure you have read the rules. Then, you recieve a tour of our server spawn by somebody who is available. They have mature staff, great members and a lot of great features. If you dont want to be greifed you can join a town. If you arent worried about being greifed you can live in the wild! They even have great donation ranks starting at just $10! If your child loves the server, they are ideal birthday or Christmas gifts! Been banned? You can appeal on the website (hazecraft.net). Like parkour? They have parkour dungeons with awesome loot! Check the server out, you won’t regret it!
Join our Family Friendly server, we clear and block chat for players who swear or advertise so your child plays with the best Experience we can provide.
Construct Craft | 24/7 | Freebuild | Huge plots | Minigames and much more at your fingertips!
What are you waiting for? Join Today: constructcraft.mc-srv.com
None of these servers work. It says “Unknown Host” when I try to log in. I am no noob so I know this stuff
Sounds like you have a DNS, connectivity, firewall or config issue your end. Try entering the server’s IP address instead of its hostname and see if that works – if so, you have a DNS issue. Make sure you enter the hostname or IP address exactly, with no whitespace. A computer restart may help too. If all else fails, try reinstalling your Minecraft client.
It seem amazing! Thank you!!!!!
Hi, I’m looking for a family-friendly server for my two kids that they can join using the PS3 system. I’m not really sure how this works so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 🙂
Hello, does anyone want to start a Minecraft server with me? I have been playing for 1 year and I need help with this.
I just came here to say THANK YOU for writing this article.
My 7-year-old son was being trolled/cyberbullied in a server. It got so bad he left that server and went to another one. The same bully showed up (under a different user name) and trolled/bullied him again. I wish I had been looking over his shoulder more – he just assumed it was part of being online. I felt like an awful parent – I still feel sick to my stomach thinking about how he was bullied.
A 7-year-old shouldn’t have to hear things like “you should kill yourself” and tons of filthy language while building a house online.
I wish I had read this article 5 weeks ago. But he’s playing in safe worlds now – thanks to this article.
Thanks for your comment Tom. What an awful experience for your son and you. I have a 7-year-old too and can imagine how traumatic it would be for him.
I’m glad my article has helped you out and that your son is now playing safely.
this article helped me a lot!
I own one of the servers on this list, and I have to say, it’s a lot of work. I couldn’t do it without the support of a volunteer community – it’s all done in our spare time, not for profit.
My own son, who I originally created the server for, doesn’t really play that much anymore (we’ve been going two years now), and I sometimes wonder why I bother.
Then I read comments from my own server staff (most of them parents), and comments such as that from Tom Cox above, and that reminds me why I do it. All these servers are a minority in the online Minecraft community and are a safe haven for people who want to enjoy the game in a social atmosphere without fear of constant abuse, bullying, racism, sexism, intolerance and bad language. I applaud and thank all the server owners on this amazing list and all the people who give their time to staff and administrate them.
And thanks to Matt Doyle for creating the article. For anyone who’s interested, he reviewed us un-announced and anonymous, just joining as a regular player – we were only notified when the article was published – so the reviews are unbiased and unsolicited.
Thanks everyone.
Thanks for your comment TheLecturer. 🙂 I think you guys do a great job running these family-friendly servers. I hear horror stories semi-regularly from parents whose kids played on regular public Minecraft servers. I usually point them to this article and tell them to check out some of these fantastic servers instead!
I’ve been playing on the Sandlot with my 2 boys for 2 years now. The checks and balances in place to protect everyone are very solid. Believe me, there is NO safer place on the internet for your child to play minecraft.
Thanks for your comment Cale. That’s great to hear!
You may also want to try out mc.diamondboots.com. We also support a family-friendly environment with profanity filters, frequent admin monitoring and presence.
Thanks!
Thank you for this wonderful post! Blocklandia is my favorite out of all of these servers. I didn’t enjoy my experience on Intercraften though. I played there for about a year, then a lot of the staff started to become corrupt. I didn’t like their “donation perks” system either, people who donated ten US dollars got unlimited iron armour and tools, and people who donated more had way too much power, such as flying and having rainbow armour in PVP games (you couldn’t tell what team they were on.) A few friends and I decided to go to Blocklandia and I have had a better experience since then.
Thanks for your feedback Maria!
I’m glad you’re enjoying Blocklandia!
Thanks for this! I’m looking for similar suggestions for the Pocket Edition (iPad, specifically). Any tips? Thanks!
I, too, am looking for a family friendly server for minecraft pocket edition. Can someone point me in the right direction?
I get the impression that there aren’t many family-friendly Pocket Edition servers out there. The main problem seems to be that there aren’t the tools/plugins for PE servers to help admins make it family-friendly. Towncraft tried it a while ago but had to take it down:
http://towncraft.us/towncraft-pocket-edition-server-up/
If anyone knows of any, please feel free to post them here!
We also run a family friendly server!
play.fasttortoise.co.uk
NO GRIEFING
NO PVP
NO SWEARING
NO BULLYING
Pure survival! We encourage people to work together and have friendly staff of 24/7
Thank you so much for this article. It was so helpful. Truly appreciate your work!
Thanks so much, Mr. Doyle! My son has been using Skrafty, it has different play worlds, as well as lessons for the homeschooler. I know that many people may NOT like Skrafty because it IS Christian and based for homeschoolers, but for Christian Homeschoolers like my 7 year old son- it’s a fantastic way to incorporate MC to schoolwork or Bible Study! Thank you for this list- Maybe some of the noob worlds, games and tours will be helpful to us! I appreciate this article! Thank you!
has anyone played minecraft on facebook. its not in english, so i just need to know its ok.
I really suggest safecraft and lundman. They are both family friendly!
Links?
Thank you very much for your article. We were also nervous of our 11 year old playing online which he was desperate to do. This article was very helpful in finding some great, safe sites. He and his friend are playing on one of them now, and are giggling away. Thank you!
Thanks for your comment. That’s great to hear!
My 6 year old has been playing MC since 4. LOVES watching Youtube videos and that has been a task to find friendly ones but I’ve done it.
He recently asked me if we could start our own server. There are plenty of friendly servers out there but how could I resist! 🙂 So, we started our own, it is a work in progress. I wanted to keep it geared more for younger kids as a place they don’t have to deal with anyone bullying for being younger or for whatever creative designs they come up with.
Right now I have a Survival world but also have a plugin to access a full Creative World and another Survival World that doesn’t have monsters.
I’m new to doing this so I take any suggestions! So far a couple of my son’s friends play and some others from around the country. IF it ever takes off then I’d need help but one step at a time right 🙂
Feel free to check it out, I do have it whitelisted to keep any riff raff out. You can get info from ty-craft.enjin.com. Err hope that’s alright to post Matt… ?
Thanks :)!
No problem Justin. Hope the server works out well! 🙂
Hello!
I play on servers with my little brothers who are 7 and 9. In every single one I have tried there is inappropriate language and trolling/bullying. I am so glad that there are family servers!
However, I tried to get on all of the servers on this list and the Minecraft PE edition could not find them. I typed in the name and IP address where it told me to… is there something extra I could do to help? Thank you!
Hi Sophia, these servers are PC/Mac only I’m afraid. I don’t currently know of any family-friendly servers for Minecraft PE.
Thank you very much for taking the time to create this post – appreciated.
You’re welcome, Steve! I’m glad you found it helpful. 🙂
Would anyone try looking at play.mcball.net?
Great list Matt, I was looking for this exact type of server for me and my 14 year old nephew to play on (even though he swears and stuff now, I still view him as a little kid, lol) but didn’t think of actually Google-ing for them until today. Thanks a lot for the information!
Jacob
———————————————————————————————–
User referred here by: http://www.eliteenvy.com/best-minecraft-servers-lists-hosts-types/
Glad it helped Jacob! I hope your nephew enjoys some of these servers. 🙂
Matt
Do you happen to know of a way to restrict access to certain mc servers from a PC. My kid has accessed loads of servers before I found your post, and I want to make sure only ones that I approve of (like these family friendly ones) are used.
Jay
Jay, you could do this with a firewall either on your PC or on your router, but it requires a bit of techno-wizardry! You’d need to block the port that MC uses by default (25565 I think), then allow that port for the specific server IPs that you want to allow your kid to play on.
We are still looking for a Minecraft PE server v.0.11.1 for the iPad mini. Are there any options out there? It seems like it is slim pickings.
Oh, thank you so much for this article! We have been trying for almost a year to get onto Intercraften, and it takes MONTHS to be whitelisted – only to hit a wall due to some glitch on our end or theirs where it claims we are not whitelisted even after our “welcome” email arrives. The hosts of that server have never responded to numerous pleas for help, and they delete my polite queries from their facebook page. Not impressed with them, so I am so happy to know there are so many other options! We will be trying out one of these this very afternoon I have no doubt. THANK YOU.
That’s weird, I had the same ‘glitch’ getting white listed to Intercraften. But they did respond quickly to square it away. Sorry that happened 🙁
There are so many out there and this list is an excellent resource. I do play on most of them however find myself in the server I made for my son more so lately… certainly isn’t as flashy as the ones on this list but that’s OK 🙂 Happy building!
The exact same thing happened to us at Intercraften. I visited their forum and saw several other instances of the same. Absolutely no response when we asked for help.
Not impressed at all and would much rather lend my support to the other wonder family-friendly options available.
I do not recommend towncraft to be on a family friendly list. My kids aren’t allowed to play there as I’ve seen “staff” bullying kids. Highly inappropriate.
FYI: famcraft is now a whitelisted server.
Hi I’m new to all this Minecraft server stuff, is it safe that my son give out his Minecraft IP address or server name?
Are you saying that your son wants to set up a public Minecraft server?
No it is not safe for him to give out his IP (Or Internet Protocol) to anyone unless your network is secured by DDOS protection, you cay take the risk but it is not recommended, also keep in mind that it takes a lot of power to run a detected 24/7 server on a pc. Although if he his simply playing with friends he should check out the whitelist function to only allow his friends to be able to access his server.
If you have any further questions please contact me by replying on this question
Hi Matt,
Great article and would love an update, there seems to be so many more child friendly servers at the moment, particularly as the demographic of players seems to be shifting towards increasingly younger people.
We have a UK based child friendly server at mc.dreamycraft.com that we are desperately trying to get off the ground, try to make a place where young people can play and hopefully parents, can get involved in game as well. We currently would welcome some extra players to make a more vibrant world. We are having to hover in the awful no-mans land of having the server open (not whitelisted) to try and get some people on, but are looking towards getting a whitelist up as soon as.
This is a wonderful article! So many servers have awful people who use excessive profanity, attack others, and ruin their buildings. I found one called BizzCraft (play.bizzcraft.net) 2 years ago. It is a small server, but has a great community and we always work to make younger players welcome and keep the server a safe place for them. It is a Free-Build, survival, non-PvP server. We use claims, but sometimes I wish claiming was easier for the younger players to understand.
We have a server designed for the whole family to play on. At this time it is a towny server only, with many loyalty items in the loyalty shop that can be earned with loyalty points earned in game. We do not allow cussing, bullying, sexual talk, name calling and We have friendly and helpful staff. We post our rules on our website at http://www.kotct.us and our server is mc.kotct.us
We do not allow and will punish any attempt to get a childs personal information. We also actively report any attempt that appears to be predatory to the police with all information we have, this has not happened as of yet! We started our server to be a safe place for children.
Hi, parents to girls (9 and 11) we have totally banned our girls from using any public sites (you can imagine how that went down), they have tried using, what they call, family servers and the “chat” concerns me, the filters seemed to let thru someone using the words vagina and mother in the most explicit sentence… need I say more…. to my 9 year old, don’t worry my daughter told me they will be banned anyway, but as you can imagine no child should have to read some of this stuff, couldn’t care less (in this case the child was 10) gets banned its already been seen by my kids. My children seem reluctant to turn chat off, but do sites vary in their filters? Is it a case of some family servers have better filters like the ones you are recommending? I would love to have a rethink about my girls ban, but can’t until I know its as safe as possible – any help you can give us daggy old fashioned un-minecraft savvy parents would be welcome!
Hi Janine, good question about filters. I don’t know the details of the exact filters that these servers use, but I’d imagine they’re not clever enough to filter explicit sentences that don’t contain actual swear words. I’m sure anyone chatting like that would get banned though. Perhaps some server admins can chime in with more information?
I don’t think you’ll ever find the end all be all in filters. The one I use is pretty intelligent. To the point even if someone types a word incorrectly to beat a filter it would catch it. Will it catch everything… no. Kids are crafty these day but I’d say it would catch a large majority.
I have a portion that can change profanity into other happy words so at beat their sentence wouldn’t make sense.
The biggest problem with filters is development. Many are out there but development falls behind.
I’m in agreement with you as far as sure the violator was banned but the words have already been seen… again not sure there is a 100 percent solution on it but some filters can reduce it very much so.
Thanks for your help and advice guys, just asked the girls if they have ever used one of these servers listed here and they said no, so one of them might be worth trying. They seem to think that if someone does get banned the user can just make up another user and go in again that way – is this correct? And yes some kids are sneaky – I can’t believe what kids were saying on chat and some of them 8 or 9 – been a real eye opener!
Hi Janine, Matt,
I am the founder of the Crazy Pig server listed on this site. I’d agree with other comments – no system is infallible. I take a particular pride with the filters on Crazy Pig – we have an automated system which blocks all forms of inappropriate language, even attempts to fool / f00l / f.o.o.l / f00! the system, and then removes the offending player from the server, bans their username and their connecting IP address so they cannot return with a different username. We also have a team of around 20 adult volunteer “staff”, spread all around the world, to keep an eye on things.
I’d strongly recommend visiting a server first yourself, have a look for any online staff, and have a chat with them.
Come join us on Spectrumcraft.uk
We have a very small server, built and run for our 9 year old role playing aspie boy. We are a whitelisted server, so you cannot join unless we are satisfied you are going to be able to folow our in game rules.
Once banned you can never return as we unwhitelist you and your ip.
All our players are on the Spectrum plus their friends and family.
Moderators are family members. Free to play. No plots. Creative and survival. Lots of different worlds.
We also have spectrumcraftmods.uk a second server running the very popular spin off from (Lord of the Rings/The Fellowship) Crusader Craft.
Hatch your own dinosaur, build yourself a castle, visit different kingdoms and lots more.
Our plug ins are very good at filtering anything unsuitable….words or deeds.
Visit and take a look, read our rules. Apply if you like us.
In the beginning of the article, you mentioned some servers allow voice chat and some that don’t allow kids to destroy the buildings of others (anti-griefing?). On almost all of the servers you note whether they have the anti-griefing plugins but I only saw one that mentioned the voice chat feature. Is the talking feature (or lack of it) a security issue? If not, why don’t the servers use it?
Voice chat can’t be monitored / censored unless you have humans willing to sit and listen to it 24×7. As a server owner, I wouldn’t want to provide something that could be so badly misused.
The Sandlot is a great place to play. We now have 2 new types of staff, Senior Helper and Helper, and we have Hardcore now. Factions was removed due to the breaks of friendship and the violence, and my IGN is IshieFishie.
Any opinion on Gamers Pact. My 9 wants to join as staff and I know nothing about them
mcmagic is totally safe- it has numerous plugins to controll bullying and language:
-anti griefing
-swear plugin programmed to automatically clear chat when it detects a swear, misspelled swear, or an asterisked (*) swear
-on-game moderators present 24/7
-chat does not allow overuse of many symbols or capital letters
-moderators watch chat and clear and warn/kick/mute players at the first sign of harassment, bullying, inappropriate language, offensive topics of conversation, advertising of youtube channels, and conversations about non kid friendly media
I trust this server and if a stray swear leaks out (which is VERY rare) immediately there is strong protest from other players.
Thanks, that comment was really useful. I talk to a lot of parents who are concerned about where there kids are online. At least I can tell them that the Mcmagic site is well managed and has great community support.
what is the addstar info? cant seem to find the ip or server address anywhere
Thanks for this great post. I run Minecraft clubst public libraries during school holidays and the kids have been dying for good information on servers to visit.
I’ll be sure to share this with my Minecrafter groups January and April 2016. Would it be okay to create printouts from this post to share? I’ll be sure to add a link to the site.
Sure, no problem Therese!
I am running a server called BlockCityMC, which has aggressive plugins to prevent spamming, profanity, cheating (of any kind), and more. Anyone who breaks a rule will get instantly kicked/banned/muted from either a plugin or an admin. The IP is blockcitymc.mcph.co, and the website is blockcitymc.com.
Thank you so much for this list. My son is 6 and has been playing minecraft religiously for about a year, and finally after months of nagging, I’ve decided to let him onto a public server. A quick google search and you were the first hit. And what a good first hit! My son is happily exploring two of the servers (he keeps swapping between them) and is superbly happy to be allowed on them. Many thanks for all your hard work, and for the people running the servers!
Bottom line…my 8 yr. Old was allowed at his b.f.’s house 2 play minecraft online even after i specificly told the parent not 2 because afraid of online predators..id like info. On “no chat” ,safe ,online minecraft. Im an older mother so not technologically advanced.thanks
I can’t get on yet but I went on a server for high school and
I did not know but when I herd aobut this I was so happy!
SO very useful. Thank you so much for this level of detail and I will feel good knowing my kids are safe and having fun.