recommendation for family/kid-safe Public Server for Minecraft?

My son insists that his friends have access to Minecraft public servers, but I'm a bit more dubious and was curious how others handle this issue. Barring setting up a private server just for him and his friends, does anyone allow their kids access to a public server, and - if so - which one(s) and why? Thanks for any help!

- rj

How old is the kid?  Other than a bit of cursing, I have found most of the things that happen on those servers to be pretty tame.

My 8 year old says that most public servers don't allow bad language etc. He recommends Mineplex, high pixel and lichcraft for younger kids.

Agreed...my 9 year olds get server recommendations from classmates, and I don't over-manage it.

However, I do recommend two things:

1.  Make sure the computing takes place where you can peek over their shoulders and see what they are up to.

2.  Chat with them about what to do when things get messy.  Years back my daughter had a problem when someone essentially tricked her into helping him rob someone ("can you help me move my chests?", and then left her holding the responsibility.  I've told them that other people won't always be fair, but that I expect them to be, and that they need to know to leave if they find themselves in a toxic environment.

3.  Decide if you are going to mind when (not "if", in my experience) you children move on from Creative Mode and start playing Hunger Games type survival games.  

pol100gk said:

My 8 year old says that most public servers don't allow bad language etc. He recommends Mineplex, high pixel and lichcraft for younger kids.

My kids(6&8) and I have played on the HyPixal(mc.hypixal.net), and Mineplex(us.minplex.com) servers for a couple of years. 

They have a lot of different types of games, and large server populations, and moderation(moderators who make sure things aren't getting out of hand).

Forgive me for being computer illiterate but how do you play on a server? And why would you play on one server over the other, i.e., HyPixal vs. Mineplex? Thanks!

my niece is more into Roblox and Animal Jam now but different servers hosted different games, if I remember correctly. Some would fill up and you'd move to another server. Or shed switch servers to find better/different games and people she knew.