Despite Their Popularity Among Youth (ages 6 - 14)

This dissertation endeavors to deeply perceive the features of Minecraft servers explicitly created for youth by three research using blended strategies analysis. Human-Computer Interplay (HCI) analysis exhibits that sandbox-type virtual world video games like Minecraft function as curiosity-driven spaces the place youth can explore their creative pursuits, build technical experience, and form social connections with peers and near-friends. Regardless of their reputation among youth (ages 6 - 14), we know little concerning the social and technological options of "in-the-wild" Minecraft servers that current themselves as "child-pleasant" or "household-friendly." The aims of this work are three-fold:1. To analyze the rhetoric of child-/family-friendliness and the socio-technical mechanisms of such servers (Examine I: 60 servers), 2. To grasp the lived experiences of server employees who reasonable on such servers (Research II: Eight youth and 22 moderators), and 3. MINECRAFT SERVER LISTS To explore a design paradigm for technological mechanisms that leverage the strengths of a kid-/family-pleasant server community whereas additionally supporting moderators' practices (Study III) I draw from interdisciplinary theories and structure this dissertation around two predominant arguments about kid-/family-friendly Minecraft server ecosystems. First, I argue that they are instantiations of play-based affinity networks created by adults that promote opportunities for youth to explore their pursuits 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-pleasant. Examine I contributes a taxonomy for understanding server guidelines and an empirical characterization of three server genres - child-/household-friendly (n1 = 19); common-family-pleasant (n2 = 20); and basic (n3 = 20) in Minecraft. Examine II reveals moderators' motivations and socio-technical practices in kid-/household-friendly servers. The findings present that adult moderators encourage youth-led inventive roleplays, assist the pursuits of young players (e.g., Hogwarts virtual world, virtual Pleasure Day celebrations, etc.), and offer mentorship to youth moderators on their servers. Study III theorizes the potential for automated prosocial tools in play-primarily based spaces via a Discord Bot referred to as "UCIProsocialBot" within OhanaCraft, considered one of the kid-/household-friendly server communities. Together, these findings present a set of social and technological features which will substantiate a mannequin for designing child-/family-friendly on-line playgrounds. This work theorizes that child-/family-friendly servers can actualize optimistic youth improvement when their self-narratives, social practices, and technological mechanisms are aligned with adolescent developmental needs.