Are Minecraft Mods Bad for Kids?

Play a Minecraft today and build a world tomorrow

Since 2009, Minecraft has nurtured the minds, imagination, and creativity of the players, whether kids or adults. As video games are becoming hugely popular like Fortnite and Roblox studio, they also enabled players to connect, to discuss ideas, and to build a world of their own. For instance, research suggests that socioemotional messages during a game, such as “Thanks for the help,” “Yeah, I agree with you,” and “Wow, that was funny,” encourages others to become more strategic and collaborative in gaming.

If you try to observe the name “Minecraft,” it implies that it is “your craft.” That’s why schools, psychologists,  and even parents, agree that Minecraft is leaning to become an education tool that enables young minds to explore their creativity, as well as their social and psychological skills. 

Today, Minecraft Mods upgrade your gaming experience. This advanced tool allows players to modify details on their Minecraft gaming.  However, it has become a hot issue for tech experts, Minecraft Youtubers, and ordinary players.

Minecraft mountain

What is a Minecraft Mod? 

Minecraft mods are modifications which add, reduce, or even enhance the present feature of your Minecraft display, by introducing new animals, armor, weapons, potions, game mechanics, settings, animations, blocs, terrains, biomes, and much more. 

Mods are not built-in features of the Minecraft. Meaning, you need to download another source to enable your desired modifications. 

Just like another coding for kids video game Minecraft works together with thousands of lines of codes. Here, the purpose of Minecraft mods is allowing players to create their new worlds, challenges, or even characters, in writing game modifications through coding.

What are some of the greatest Minecraft Mods found online?

LotsOMobs 

Give life to your desired world in Minecraft by modifying your space and time through LotsOMobs. This Minecraft exploration mod allows you to include nature and animals from prehistoric ages. LotsOMobs offers over 45 tons of new mobs with matching items, including mammoths, savanna grass, fossil ore, easter eggs, and many more. Plus, you can go to prehistoric dimensions such as Dinosaur and Ice Age environment.

Rope Bridge Mod 

Rope Bridge Mod is a Minecraft automation mod that enables you to build bridges and discover great paths. This mod allows you to travel across vast canyons with minimal efforts. Minecraft enthusiasts suggest that Rope Bridge Mod is perfect to use early in the game. Its aesthetic pleases other co-players, which is also a great way to avoid enemies below the bridge.

Carpenter’s Block 

When you aim to create tall buildings and magnificent structures, Carpenter’s Block helps you achieve it. This Minecraft creative mod is a best-selling and advanced tool to use, especially that it mimics whichever block you cover with overlays, including grass, snow, web, hay, mycelium, or vine for cool effects. Undeniably, ordinary blocks like sand, dirt, and planks have static styles and shapes. But when you modify them through this mod, you’ll see the best and customized results.

Minecraft city

Is Minecraft Mods bad for kids?

Now that you have understood the foundation of Minecraft Mods and its greatest mods found online, we need to find the answer to that question. To elaborate further, let’s identify the advantages and disadvantages of using Minecraft Mods.

Pros of Minecraft Mods

It develops a child’s creativity and imagination. Minecraft Mods allow players to harness their creative thinking. From a plain and ordinary sandboxes, a child can modify things the way he wants. Designs reflect a child’s belief and outlook on life. Since Minecraft Mods empower a child’s imagination, it also improves his critical thinking on the cause-and-effect of things he desires to modify. 

It teaches your child to coding programs. Minecraft Mods require your child to code. This outward motivation in coding teaches your child to learn and apply basic coding like repetition, conditionals, functions, and variables. As your child code sequences, he trains his mental pattern on building marvelous structures, and create games to challenge others. To learn about coding becomes a competitive edge of a child, which is the aim of Minecraft Mods. 

It introduces your kid to the basics of architecture. One of the primary benefits of Minecraft is giving your kid a chance to build anything they want, given that they seemingly have innumerable digital pieces of LEGO to work on. The catch is that some features can be tricky, if not impossible, to build without using specific mods.

With the newfound power from Minecraft mods, your kid can start exploring the various styles of architecture, such as Baroque, Gothic, Post-Modern, Renaissance, Victorian, Ancient Roman, and a whole lot more, as well as learning about renowned architectural landmarks, like Taj Mahal, Colosseum, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Eiffel Tower. ArchitectureCraft, Chinese Workshop, Architect’s Palette, and The Mighty Architect are among the most popular mods for architecture.

It can help your child learn about history. As your little one delves deeper into architecture and popular man-made attractions, reconstructing them in the world of Minecraft also exposes your child to the historical background of these sites. It involves understanding significant events in human civilization, finding their locations, discovering more about their creators, and reanimating prominent events and the related experiences that took place over time. Some of the Minecraft mods that can make this happen include Conquest Reforged, Age of Weapons, World Wars, and Medieval Craft.

Minecraft temple

It supports your kid’s curious mind. Playing Minecraft alone can already pique your kid’s curiosity, but this can even go tenfold with mods, as it can allow your child to add new items, incredible pieces of machinery, and devices, alter landscapes and terrain, improve overall graphics, and grant faster speed, new powers, and other abilities to players. Thus, further stimulating his inquisitiveness.

It boosts your kid’s resourcefulness. Curiosity entails wanting more, forcing your child to level up his resourcefulness, as well. It will teach how to research tips and tricks to help them achieve whatever challenge is on the way. That may mean doing research online, watching YouTube videos, or even going for a quick trip to the nearest library, where many Minecraft tutorial books are available. Remember that being resourceful is something hugely beneficial to your child later in life!

It helps improve your kid’s math skills. Part of Minecraft’s virtual reality is developing complex shapes, manipulating blocks, and dealing with geometric problems. These are key concepts that will improve your kid’s math skills in no time as he gets more involved in Minecraft mods. With that, it’s no surprise that many educators are using Minecraft as support for their student’s learning in math.

It allows your kid to be independent and gain confidence. When playing Minecraft and using mods, your kid is left by himself. Your kid no longer consults or asks for help from Mom and Dad and makes his own decisions based on what he knows, and what he researched. That trains him to be independent, lets him experience either success or failure, and helps him learn through experience. Ease your worries, as any successful decision will give him more confidence and strive for more triumph in the future!

It enables your kid to gain valuable life skills. In Minecraft, your kid needs to complete a number of tasks, such as creating a shelter, preparing food, taking care of the animals, and crafting tools and equipment, to be successful in their world. While these simple tasks are only in the virtual world, it helps your kid gain life skills, such as out-of-the-box thinking, better decision-making, and advanced problem-solving, which are all valuable in real life.

Minecraft modern house

It teaches your kid career skills. Aside from life skills, there are also work skills that your kid can learn when playing Minecraft. For instance, elements in Minecraft can also teach your child of business skills like relationship-building and trading. Your kid also forms a solid background in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), disciples that are relevant in the \workplace. Not to mention that coding alone is already in demand and is expected to be so in the coming years, putting your kid in good status in terms of his future employment.

Cons of Minecraft Mods 

A software virus can occur and damage your Minecraft. As your child searches for his desired Minecraft mods, there will be a lot of viruses that could lead him to shady web pages. Minecraft fora and well-known blogs offer random links such as AdFly, a digital shortner URL, which redirects you to ads pages. During the process, random websites entice you to click random buttons for you to get your desired Minecraft mod. However, it is another way round. Instead of obtaining a mod, you get a virus.

Some mods are not kid-friendly and more violent. Some Minecraft mods may complicate your child’s mental health due to its content and graphics. There are Minecraft mods that promote violence, fear, and intimidation towards other players. As it defeats the purpose of positive learning, it affects the creativity and imagination of a child, which would reflect his thinking pattern. 

The Verdict 

Minecraft mod is not bad for kids. They are tools for fostering the creative freedom and expression of a child. Mods enhance a child’s capacity for building and altering his own desired world. Although implications might arise due to unfitting content and potential viruses, as a parent, you need to regulate the usage of Minecraft mods in your child’s gaming experience.

As a pro-tip, you need to choose Minecraft Mods that are age-appropriate, promote learning, and family-friendly. You need to look for a mod that has good reviews and gained positive feedbacks to avoid internet scams and viruses. 

Key Takeaways 

Minecraft mods are advanced tools to modify a child’s gaming experience by adding, reducing, or even enhancing his present Minecraft display. By enabling a mod, a child introduces new potions, weapons, game mechanics, settings, animations, and much more.

Today, Minecraft mods have gained criticisms from tech experts and Minecraft enthusiasts. For positive reasons, Minecraft mods develop a child’s creativity, imagination, and passion for coding. On the contrary, Minecraft mods could be the least factor for obtaining a virus and the major factor for complicating a child’s mental health. 

As a verdict, Minecraft mods is not bad for kids. As a parent, regulation and awareness is the key!