Despite Their Reputation Among Youth ages 6 14

This dissertation endeavors to deeply understand the options of Minecraft servers explicitly created for youth by three research utilizing blended strategies analysis. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) analysis exhibits that sandbox-type virtual world video games like Minecraft function as curiosity-pushed spaces the place youth can discover their creative interests, construct technical experience, and type social connections with peers and near-friends. Regardless of their popularity amongst youth (ages 6 - 14), we all know little about the social and technological options of "in-the-wild" Minecraft servers that current themselves as "kid-pleasant" or "household-friendly." The aims of this work are three-fold:1. To investigate the rhetoric of kid-/household-friendliness and the socio-technical mechanisms of such servers (Examine I: 60 servers), 2. To know the lived experiences of server staff who moderate on such servers (Examine II: 8 youth and 22 moderators), and 3. To explore a design paradigm for technological mechanisms that leverage the strengths of a kid-/family-pleasant server group while also supporting moderators' practices (Study III) I draw from interdisciplinary theories and construction this dissertation around two important arguments about child-/family-pleasant Minecraft server ecosystems. First, I argue that they are instantiations of play-based mostly affinity networks created by adults that promote alternatives for youth to discover their interests and social connections. Second, I argue that the social and technological mechanisms reflected in the server rules and moderators' practices are characteristic of servers that self-describe as child-/family-friendly. Examine I contributes a taxonomy for understanding server guidelines and an empirical characterization of three server genres - child-/household-pleasant (n1 = 19); common-family-pleasant (n2 = 20); and basic (n3 = 20) in Minecraft. Research II reveals moderators' motivations and socio-technical practices in child-/family-pleasant servers. Hypedpvp The findings show that grownup moderators encourage youth-led artistic roleplays, assist the pursuits of younger players (e.g., Hogwarts virtual world, virtual Satisfaction Day celebrations, and so forth.), and supply mentorship to youth moderators on their servers. Study III theorizes the potential for automated prosocial tools in play-primarily based spaces by a Discord Bot known as "UCIProsocialBot" within OhanaCraft, certainly one of the kid-/household-friendly server communities. The more you know the more you don't know Collectively, these findings present a set of social and technological options that may substantiate a mannequin for designing child-/family-pleasant online playgrounds. This work theorizes that child-/family-friendly servers can actualize optimistic youth growth when their self-narratives, social practices, and technological mechanisms are aligned with adolescent developmental needs.