Despite Their Popularity Amongst Youth (ages 6

This dissertation endeavors to deeply perceive the options of Minecraft servers explicitly created for youth through three research using combined strategies research. Human-Computer Interplay (HCI) research reveals that sandbox-style virtual world games like Minecraft function as curiosity-pushed spaces the place youth can explore their artistic interests, build technical experience, and form social connections with peers and near-peers. Despite their reputation among youth (ages 6 - 14), we all know little concerning the social and technological options of "in-the-wild" Minecraft servers that current themselves as "kid-friendly" or "family-friendly." The goals of this work are three-fold:1. To research the rhetoric of child-/household-friendliness and the socio-technical mechanisms of such servers (Study I: 60 servers), 2. To know the lived experiences of server workers who moderate on such servers (Study II: 8 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 while also supporting moderators' practices (Examine III) I draw from interdisciplinary theories and construction this dissertation around two principal arguments about kid-/household-friendly Minecraft server ecosystems. First, I argue that they are 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 reflected in the server rules and moderators' practices are characteristic of servers that self-describe as child-/family-friendly. Study I contributes a taxonomy for understanding server rules and an empirical characterization of three server genres - kid-/household-pleasant (n1 = 19); basic-household-pleasant (n2 = 20); and normal (n3 = 20) in Minecraft. Research II reveals moderators' motivations and socio-technical practices in child-/family-friendly servers. Server lists show that adult moderators encourage youth-led artistic roleplays, assist the pursuits of young gamers (e.g., Hogwarts virtual world, virtual Satisfaction Day celebrations, and so on.), and provide mentorship to youth moderators on their servers. Research III theorizes the potential for automated prosocial instruments in play-based spaces by a Discord Bot called "UCIProsocialBot" inside OhanaCraft, certainly one of the child-/family-pleasant server communities. Together, these findings present a set of social and technological options which will substantiate a model for designing child-/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.