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Lego is really, really paranoid about the kids being exposed to "bad influences" and predators. Those definitely exist, but Lego is a huge, fat target for lawsu

by kabdib 12y ago

Lego is really, really paranoid about the kids being exposed to "bad influences" and predators. Those definitely exist, but Lego is a huge, fat target for lawsuits. IIRC chat was next to nonexistent in the Lego online products. Mojang? Too small to care about. The parents seem to know that; at least I haven't heard about any multi-million dollar lawsuits revolving around MineCraft's chat, for instance. I really wonder what Microsoft is going to do about this.

cookiecaper 12y ago
The thing with Minecraft is that it's pretty difficult for children to get in trouble with it. Chat is a minor part of the game and it's hard to send long messages; it's more or less just for coordinating builds. Servers are often private or invite-only and often involve mostly people the kids knew in real life. External resources cannot be imported into the game, so you don't have to worry about offensive avatars or sprays. If someone is really that dedicated to putting a naked woman in Minecraft, and I'm sure some children are, it would be a super pixelated version built out of Minecraft blocks that most parents wouldn't find explicit or offensive (though they may talk to the kid about the server he's on or something). Even though it probably happened by accident, Minecraft is pretty kid safe.
- kabdib 12y ago
  I dunno; my son constantly asks me if it's okay to install some MineCraft mod or another (he's been asking less and less because my answer is always "No"). Likewise, chat can lead to bad interactions. "Where do you live?" and "Are you a girl?" type questions. I haven't observed this, but the possibility remains. We've has serious talks with our son about this kind of thing. I'm not paranoid, but forewarned is forearmed.
  - tacotime 12y ago
    Why deny your kid the ability to mod?!? Dude, you're putting your kid in a box by not letting him explore the world of modding. The ability to add something new to your game is a powerful one and I think it can help a kid wrap his head around how a game is working internally. I think part of a parent's responsibilities toward their kid is to encourage the kid to explore the world (in safe ways of course) and I think minecraft mods are probably a pretty safe way especially if you're approving them one by one. You're stifling your kid's creativity every time you say no to one of his proposed ideas without just consideration. Just my opinion.
    - kabdib 12y ago
      Well, after the second time I flattened and rebuilt my son's machine because it was infected with mod-carried malware, I was done. I'd been dubious prior to letting him try them out. It's hard for kids to be safe about downloading things.
      - cookiecaper 12y ago
        This is just a testament to Mojang's poor mod system. They should have an API that only allows mods to perform safe, sandboxed operations and an in-game mod browsing tool to prevent things like that, especially when such a large percentage of their audience is children.
        kabdib 12y ago
        No kidding. As an API provider, Mojang is pretty terrible.
        nickodell 12y ago
        Or, y'know, any kind of API, instead of people overwriting mojang's code.
        kllrnohj 12y ago
        Unless they add multi-processing to the mod system, they can't. You can't "sandbox" a Java class like that. You can't deny it access to JNI. You can't deny it access to java.io. You can have the host OS do this, of course, but now we're talking something far, far more complex than any mod system ever. Which is, frankly, an absurd demand. Mojang should have a mod API, but that won't do diddly squat to improve saftey. Don't execute code if you don't want that code to run.
        spand 12y ago
        Of course you can deny it access to JNI [1]. The Java platform has had this built in since forever. This is how applets work. Aside from sandbox exploits classes in Java can be locked down so much that they can pretty much only allocate memory and burn cycles. [1] http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/SecurityManager.html#checkLink%28java.lang.String%29 http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/SecurityM...

by kabdib 12y ago

cookiecaper 12y ago

The thing with Minecraft is that it's pretty difficult for children to get in trouble with it. Chat is a minor part of the game and it's hard to send long messages; it's more or less just for coordinating builds. Servers are often private or invite-only and often involve mostly people the kids knew in real life. External resources cannot be imported into the game, so you don't have to worry about offensive avatars or sprays. If someone is really that dedicated to putting a naked woman in Minecraft, and I'm sure some children are, it would be a super pixelated version built out of Minecraft blocks that most parents wouldn't find explicit or offensive (though they may talk to the kid about the server he's on or something). Even though it probably happened by accident, Minecraft is pretty kid safe.

kabdib 12y ago
I dunno; my son constantly asks me if it's okay to install some MineCraft mod or another (he's been asking less and less because my answer is always "No"). Likewise, chat can lead to bad interactions. "Where do you live?" and "Are you a girl?" type questions. I haven't observed this, but the possibility remains. We've has serious talks with our son about this kind of thing. I'm not paranoid, but forewarned is forearmed.
- tacotime 12y ago
  Why deny your kid the ability to mod?!? Dude, you're putting your kid in a box by not letting him explore the world of modding. The ability to add something new to your game is a powerful one and I think it can help a kid wrap his head around how a game is working internally. I think part of a parent's responsibilities toward their kid is to encourage the kid to explore the world (in safe ways of course) and I think minecraft mods are probably a pretty safe way especially if you're approving them one by one. You're stifling your kid's creativity every time you say no to one of his proposed ideas without just consideration. Just my opinion.
  - kabdib 12y ago
    Well, after the second time I flattened and rebuilt my son's machine because it was infected with mod-carried malware, I was done. I'd been dubious prior to letting him try them out. It's hard for kids to be safe about downloading things.
    - cookiecaper 12y ago
      This is just a testament to Mojang's poor mod system. They should have an API that only allows mods to perform safe, sandboxed operations and an in-game mod browsing tool to prevent things like that, especially when such a large percentage of their audience is children.
      - kabdib 12y ago
        No kidding. As an API provider, Mojang is pretty terrible.
      - nickodell 12y ago
        Or, y'know, any kind of API, instead of people overwriting mojang's code.
      - kllrnohj 12y ago
        Unless they add multi-processing to the mod system, they can't. You can't "sandbox" a Java class like that. You can't deny it access to JNI. You can't deny it access to java.io. You can have the host OS do this, of course, but now we're talking something far, far more complex than any mod system ever. Which is, frankly, an absurd demand. Mojang should have a mod API, but that won't do diddly squat to improve saftey. Don't execute code if you don't want that code to run.
        spand 12y ago
        Of course you can deny it access to JNI [1]. The Java platform has had this built in since forever. This is how applets work. Aside from sandbox exploits classes in Java can be locked down so much that they can pretty much only allocate memory and burn cycles. [1] http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/SecurityManager.html#checkLink%28java.lang.String%29 http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/SecurityM...