I've seen some stuff around the net about minecraft, enough to know what it is, but I've never played it or experienced it at all.

My GF's 11 year old wants an account.  Her dad plays it and apparently allows her to play it at his house.

I have an Untangle server in the house to filter porn/stuff from the kids and this one (the 11 year old) is a future computer scientist... Total geek.  Gonna go far in the IT industry some day.

BUT... my biggest concern for her TODAY is that minecraft is a multiplayer environment (correct me if I'm wrong) and I don't want her a> downloading viruses accidentally b> downloading spyware accidentally c> downloading some other crap accidentally d> chatting online using the game's chat function (which I assume it has).

I don't need her chatting it up with some 40 year old posing as a 12-year-old boy/girl.  Her mom and I are very careful with that the kids watch and do online... As I wish my parents were when I was that age (ha!)

So basically, is there anything about minecraft that is potentially threatening for a kid?

Game Itself:  Absolutely nothing offensive, were it a movie it'd be rated G.

Risk associated with letting children interact with strangers online:  Same as any other, some diligence required on part of parent.

roger.  thanks.  are there mechanisms in place for parental control?  is chat on its own port/protocol so I can block?

Minecraft can be played as either an online game or a single player game.  It's very engaging and has great gameplay as a single player game.

You're not going to be able to block chat if you allow it to be played multiplayer.  You should be able to block multiplayer all together if you wish.  There are no parental controls.  The game was basically cooked up by one dude in his basement, it's got awesome gameplay but not really any of the features that a commercial game might have.

Let the kids set up her own server.

You can white and blacklist who can connect to it.



That way she can play online with people she knows.






 

When the Arf server gets fixed have her join us.
We're pretty kid friendly as long as we know the kids are on.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1285692_.html

just post her in game name and one of use will get her hooked up.