Regardless Of Their Popularity Among Youth ages 6 14

This dissertation endeavors to deeply perceive the features of Minecraft servers explicitly created for youth by way of three studies using mixed strategies research. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) analysis exhibits that sandbox-model digital world video games like Minecraft operate as curiosity-pushed spaces the place youth can discover their inventive interests, construct technical experience, and form social connections with peers and near-friends. Regardless of their recognition amongst youth (ages 6 - 14), we know little about the social and technological features 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 analyze the rhetoric of child-/household-friendliness and the socio-technical mechanisms of such servers (Examine I: 60 servers), 2. To know the lived experiences of server employees who moderate on such servers (Examine II: Eight youth and 22 moderators), and 3. Audioshop 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 primary arguments about kid-/household-pleasant Minecraft server ecosystems. First, I argue that they're instantiations of play-primarily based affinity networks created by adults that promote opportunities for youth to explore their interests and social connections. minecraft servers Second, I argue that the social and technological mechanisms reflected within the server rules and moderators' practices are characteristic of servers that self-describe as kid-/family-friendly. Examine I contributes a taxonomy for understanding server guidelines and an empirical characterization of three server genres - kid-/family-pleasant (n1 = 19); basic-family-pleasant (n2 = 20); and basic (n3 = 20) in Minecraft. Study II reveals moderators' motivations and socio-technical practices in child-/family-pleasant servers. Minecraft The findings present that grownup moderators encourage youth-led creative roleplays, help the interests of young gamers (e.g., Hogwarts virtual world, virtual Pride Day celebrations, etc.), and provide mentorship to youth moderators on their servers. Research III theorizes the potential for automated prosocial instruments in play-based mostly spaces through a Discord Bot known as "UCIProsocialBot" inside OhanaCraft, certainly one of the child-/family-friendly server communities. Collectively, these findings present a set of social and technological options that may substantiate a model for designing kid-/family-friendly on-line 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.