Minecraft guide: How to keep your child safe online with parental settings

Minecraft is “Better Together,” but only when we’re safe together.

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Minecraft is often lauded as one of the best games for family fun of all time, and there are few games as pleasant for children to play. However, Minecraft being safe doesn’t make the internet any moreso, meaning concerned parents may be looking for ways to further ensure their child’s safety whenever they play online.

Look no further, as we’ve compiled a guide on not only everything Minecraft does to make your child safer, but how you can take things into your own hands to further that protection.

A game you can play anywhere with anyone.

The only thing that could make Minecraft even better is if you could play it in more places. Wait, you can? That’s right, because Minecraft is available on almost every platform imaginable including Xbox One, Windows 10, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. Get it everywhere, play it anywhere.

How does Minecraft keep my child safe?

With the Better Together update now out on Windows 10, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, andrecently Playstation 4, any parent or guardian can rest comfortably knowing that there are a few systems in place to keep their child safe. This is because one of the requirements for online play in Minecraft is an Xbox Live profile, so it’s a logical first choice in making sure your child is playing safely. Being a mature and well-supported online platform with a full suite of parental controls and privacy settings, Xbox Live means:

Xbox Live is an awesome platform for family-friendly online play, but it can’t get everything. That’s why Minecraft has additional protections in place to make online play even safer for your family. This includes things you can do in-game to respond to or moderate other players, and things Minecraft does without you raising a finger. This includes:

Beyond what Minecraft does though, most platforms like Playstation will also have their own parental controls. By far the easiest way of going beyond what Minecraft builds in is making sure your child’s Xbox Live account is set up and configured exactly the way you want it, since most of the multiplayer parental controls will affect Minecraft on all platforms.

How can I keep my child safe?

Once you’ve configured your child’s Xbox Live settings, you’ll never have to worry whenever your child wants to play Minecraft with their friends. Xbox Live is definitely the easiest way to configure these settings on Minecraft, since those settings should affect Minecraft no matter where you’re playing it. If you wish, most platforms also have additional parental controls of their own.

Here’s how to use Xbox Live to make Minecraft even safer:

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First things first, you need to set up not only an account for you, but also for any children you have.We have an awesome guide which goes into great depth on all of this,saving you a ton of time with the guesswork.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll have a lot of new controls you can use.Some of these controls only work on Xbox or Windows devices,but many of them are applicable elsewhere as well. Some settings also won’t appear until eligible devices are added. If you want to limit your child’s playtime on an Xbox One, for example, the child needs to sign-in to the Xbox One first. Using these family settings, you can:

All of the settings above are general parental controls under the Microsoft Account, which is why they are only applicable to Xbox One, Windows 10, and occasionally Android devices. Once your child has signed into the device that they’re using with their Xbox Live account, you cango to your Xbox Live account settingsto finetune the controls for Xbox Live, which will then be applied to Minecraft everywhere. With these settings you can:

Xbox Live gives you a ton more control than just using your Microsoft Account. Some of these features will really only come into play on an Xbox One or Windows 10 device, where things like your Xbox profile are much more accessible, but settings applied here apply to any device with Minecraft installed and your child is signed in.

Xbox One and Windows 10

If you’re a concerned parent looking after their child when they’re playing Minecraft, there’s no better platform for them to be on than the dynamic Xbox and Windows duo. Microsoft is the company behind Windows, Xbox, and Minecraft, so it goes without saying that all three of them tie together very nicely. All of the Xbox Live and even the broader Microsoft Account settings a loving parent can configure apply to Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 devices, making it even easier to protect your child.

Even better, Xbox One consoles bake in most of these privacy and parental control features right on the console, including setting up a PIN to protect against unwanted purchases and inappropriate content. Windows 10 devices would rather you go through a browser, but even then more features are supported and they’re easily implemented. There are definitely numerous ways to protect other devices, but never as simple as Xbox One and Windows 10.

Java Edition on PC

If your child is playing the Java Edition of Minecraft on a Windows PC, then they’re still being protected by all the great features Mojang has baked into the legendary game. However, the Java Edition of Minecraft does not require Xbox Live integration since it does not support crossplay with other devices, and therefore loses out on many of the parental control features parents enjoy elsewhere.

If your child is playing Minecraft on PC, it might be worth getting themthe Windows 10 version instead.It’s always on-par with every other platform for new features and updates, supports crossplay between platforms so your child can play with more of their friends, and can be moderated by Xbox Live and Microsoft Account parental controls. That’s a win-win-win.

Playstation 4

Minecraft on Playstation 4 only justrecently got cross-play supportwith other platforms, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live account understandably doesn’t have the same level of access as it does on Xbox One or Windows 10. Your first step here is to make sure thatcross-play has been set up properly,as this links your child’s Microsoft Account to their Playstation 4 and enables the limited parental controls present there.

To take it even further, you’ll need to turn to Playstation’s platform specific parental controls, which we have afull guide on here.With both combined, you should have no worries that your child is safe, but can still play with all their friends no matter where they currently are.

Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch also supportscross-play with other platforms,which means those same parental controls come into full effect here. However, if you need to take it another step farther than that, you can of course use the Switch’s built-in parental controls, for which we have a guidehere.Nintendo has never been known for having prolific platform software, but even they have thorough parental controls for parents to take advantage of.

Once your parental controls are fully set up for your child’s profile on their Nintendo Switch, they can comfortably play with other Minecrafters on other platforms, and be protected by no less than three layers of protection (Minecraft, Microsoft Account, and Nintendo.) Sounds pretty good to me.

Playing it safe

As Minecraft is the quintessential family game and is a beacon of joy to children everywhere, it makes perfect sense that Mojang and Microsoft would implement a robust suite of all-encompassing parental controls. Using these controls, you can make sure your child is completely safe online, and not have to worry about what they might come across in their blocky, creative adventures.

A game you can play anywhere with anyone.

The only thing that could make Minecraft even better is if you could play it in more places. Wait, you can? That’s right, because Minecraft is available on almost every platform imaginable including Xbox One, Windows 10, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. Get it everywhere, play it anywhere.

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Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter@BoddyZachary.