This dissertation endeavors to deeply understand the options of Minecraft servers explicitly created for youth by three research utilizing mixed strategies analysis. Human-Laptop Interplay (HCI) analysis shows that sandbox-style digital world games like Minecraft operate as interest-driven areas where youth can explore their creative interests, build technical expertise, and kind social connections with peers and close to-peers. Despite their reputation among youth (ages 6 - 14), we know little in regards to the social and technological features of "in-the-wild" Minecraft servers that present themselves as "child-friendly" or "household-friendly." The aims of this work are three-fold:1. To investigate the rhetoric of kid-/family-friendliness and the socio-technical mechanisms of such servers (Study I: 60 servers), 2. To understand the lived experiences of server workers who average on such servers (Research II: Eight youth and 22 moderators), and 3. To discover a design paradigm for technological mechanisms that leverage the strengths of a kid-/household-friendly server community whereas additionally supporting moderators' practices (Study III) I draw from interdisciplinary theories and construction this dissertation round two principal arguments about kid-/family-friendly Minecraft server ecosystems. First, I argue that they're instantiations of play-based mostly affinity networks created by adults that promote opportunities for youth to discover their pursuits and social connections. Second, I argue that the social and technological mechanisms mirrored in the server rules and moderators' practices are characteristic of servers that self-describe as child-/household-friendly. Research I contributes a taxonomy for understanding server rules and an empirical characterization of three server genres - child-/family-pleasant (n1 = 19); basic-household-pleasant (n2 = 20); and common (n3 = 20) in Minecraft. Examine II reveals moderators' motivations and socio-technical practices in kid-/family-friendly servers. The findings show that adult moderators encourage youth-led artistic roleplays, assist the interests of younger gamers (e.g., Hogwarts virtual world, digital Delight Day celebrations, and many others.), and offer mentorship to youth moderators on their servers. Study III theorizes the potential for automated prosocial instruments in play-based areas by way of a Discord Bot referred to as "UCIProsocialBot" within OhanaCraft, one of the child-/household-friendly server communities. Collectively, these findings provide a set of social and technological options that will substantiate a mannequin for designing child-/family-pleasant 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.
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