Innisfree Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Dds 13 and 11 recently started playing Minecraft. I know that doesn't work out well for everyone, but it's been really good for them. They've been cooperating on building their worlds and having a lot of fun. We have just a basic router that lets them play together on their Kindles via wifi. The router has a password, we've done the usual range of business on the internet, and we've never had a problem with it. But dd11 heard a couple of kids at the playground talking about hacking other people's Minecraft accounts and blowing their (virtual) buildings up. Then last night, dd 13 found her Minecraft house destroyed. She said it was the same landscape surrounding it, but a crater where the house had been. She'd worked hard on it, and she was pretty upset. So, is it plausible that tween-aged kids really are hacking our accounts? And if so, how worried should I be about more serious mischief involving emails and credit cards? I'm really feeling my age and digital ignorance here. Heck, I was in my thirties before I ever had the occasion to send or receive an email, but I don't like this feeling of bewilderment. I'm thinking I may sign up for a course at the library over the summer. In the meantime, any advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Hmmm ... I would suspect they are all playing on the same server and then can go in and destroy someone else's work. I doubt there is any actual hacking going on. Though I agree those aren't nice tactics and when my kids were younger we kept tight reigns on which servers they could play on. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 (edited) I agree with wooly. It's likely someone who is on the same server. Are they the only ones on that server? Where are they going/playing? You could set up your own server where you have control over who is on it. Edited June 4, 2016 by SparklyUnicorn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Oh and to add, my kids harass each other. Don't put it past your kids to do that to each other. So it's always great when you have to deal with real spats and virtual spats. (no...no it's not) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto10blessings Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 I'd guess it was someone in the house 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 One of the reasons we don't do Minecraft is because I have heard too many stories about kids destroying one another's work, and my daughter would not be able to tolerate that. If your kids play on the same server as other kids, any one of those other kids could have done it. I'd look into a server run by someone who has a firm commitment to not allowing that. My friend's child used to (perhaps still does) run such a server. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Griefing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innisfree Posted June 4, 2016 Author Share Posted June 4, 2016 Okay, thanks. As far as I know no one else should have access, but this is where my limited knowledge is a problem. The kids have not joined any server. They just play on their own devices, over our own home wifi. It's supposed to be secure, but I'm not sure how sophisticated a kid would need to be in order to get in. Sadly, I suppose I'll have to consider the possibility that dd11 did this. If it wasn't hacking, and it wasn't some glitch, that's the only alternative. Yuck. Impulse control is sometimes an issue, but they've mostly been working together really well on this. I'm afraid I hadn't even seriously considered her being responsible. Griefing... Ugh. What a nasty thing to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 My DS11 once accidentally destroyed something DS10 made and was screamed at. It could happen by accident and whoever it is felt bad to own up. Or someone as blurr as my DS11 won't even realise, but DS11 play only because DS10 ask him to so he doesn't pay attention when playing. It is possible for kids to hack but more often kids hack the parental controls to get internet access, rather than hack minecraft servers to spoil other people's creations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Okay, thanks. As far as I know no one else should have access, but this is where my limited knowledge is a problem. The kids have not joined any server. They just play on their own devices, over our own home wifi. It's supposed to be secure, but I'm not sure how sophisticated a kid would need to be in order to get in. Sadly, I suppose I'll have to consider the possibility that dd11 did this. If it wasn't hacking, and it wasn't some glitch, that's the only alternative. Yuck. Impulse control is sometimes an issue, but they've mostly been working together really well on this. I'm afraid I hadn't even seriously considered her being responsible. Griefing... Ugh. What a nasty thing to do. I assume your wi-fi is password protected. Just throwing that out there. If it isn't, pretty much anyone nearby can connect to your network. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innisfree Posted June 4, 2016 Author Share Posted June 4, 2016 Yes, there's a password. Thanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJosMom Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Are your kids playing in multi-player mode? I know zero about this, but that's what my DD says is where the problems arise 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 I'm going to ask one of mine about this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Yes, there's a password. Thanks. Sorry, I just noticed you already said that! I think my older kid already went to bed, but I e-mailed about this. He knows a heck of a lot more about it than I do! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmandaVT Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 At risk of admitting how much mineraft I've played recently, are you sure a creeper didn't blow up DD's house? Do they always play in creative mode? We've had big creeper holes pop up in between times we've played. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 At risk of admitting how much mineraft I've played recently, are you sure a creeper didn't blow up DD's house? Do they always play in creative mode? We've had big creeper holes pop up in between times we've played. This. My son said that it could have been a Creeper. He went on to say that it depends on the difficulty. He went on to say a bunch more but I have no idea what it meant. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto10blessings Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 This. My son said that it could have been a Creeper. He went on to say that it depends on the difficulty. He went on to say a bunch more but I have no idea what it meant. My kids start talking about minecraft and all I hear is circus music. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innisfree Posted June 5, 2016 Author Share Posted June 5, 2016 Lol, I'm afraid I actually understand these terms now! She was in creative mode, so no creepers. And since my two kids had been "visiting" each other and playing together, it was in multiplayer. Thanks for the ideas! It sounds like, given that we have a password on the router and are not on a shared server, this probably wasn't other kids hacking, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trulycrabby Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 DS12 has been bullied on large servers. Once, another player kept destroying everything he built and told him he wouldn't stop unless ds bought the bully $50 worth of upgrades. We got the bully banned and switched to a smaller server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 So, I just asked DS12 and he said hacking is not possible on the pocket edition as it is tied to that particular device. Who's world was this? He said whomever was hosting that world would have had to be on in order for it to blow up, because on the pocket edition, the worlds pause when the host is not playing. This is different than PC edition (and maybe xbox not familiar with that) and using outside servers. If it was on your DSs world, was he trying to bulid anything with TNT ? LOL Those sometimes go boom while experimenting ;). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innisfree Posted June 5, 2016 Author Share Posted June 5, 2016 So, I just asked DS12 and he said hacking is not possible on the pocket edition as it is tied to that particular device. Who's world was this? He said whomever was hosting that world would have had to be on in order for it to blow up, because on the pocket edition, the worlds pause when the host is not playing. This is different than PC edition (and maybe xbox not familiar with that) and using outside servers. If it was on your DSs world, was he trying to bulid anything with TNT ? LOL Those sometimes go boom while experimenting ;). Okay, thanks, I appreciate this information. She was on the pocket edition, and she had been playing with TNT. Maybe that's the answer (and one that makes me much happier than suspecting dd11, who had seemed genuinely upset for her sister). Who knew this game would get so complicated? And I know they've only just gotten started. ;-) Many thanks, not just to the boardies, but also to their kids who have offered suggestions. I appreciate the ideas! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innisfree Posted June 5, 2016 Author Share Posted June 5, 2016 DS12 has been bullied on large servers. Once, another player kept destroying everything he built and told him he wouldn't stop unless ds bought the bully $50 worth of upgrades. We got the bully banned and switched to a smaller server. That's awful. Not liking it, just because it's awful. I'm glad that in this case it was clear who was causing the trouble and you could get him removed. One thing this situation has made me wonder about is how we'd ever figure out who was responsible if we were on a server with others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 That's awful. Not liking it, just because it's awful. I'm glad that in this case it was clear who was causing the trouble and you could get him removed. One thing this situation has made me wonder about is how we'd ever figure out who was responsible if we were on a server with others. I think the admin can tell. My son admins a minecraft server, and they ban people for stuff like this. I think. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innisfree Posted June 5, 2016 Author Share Posted June 5, 2016 That's good. Glad they can tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 DS said..nope that's an inside job. One of them or any friend who has access. He said it's a good idea to change passwords periodically (in the extremely unlikely event someone gets into your account). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackermom Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Dd11 is pretty experienced with various versions on minecraft and its programming. She thinks that hacking COULD be possible, especially against a fairly basic router. She said that some people have programs that allow them to search for the necessary password to access a system. I cannot really explain most of what else she said on the topic of hacking! She also that if the damage was to an area of 9x9 blocks or smaller, she would suspect a creeper left in the system, if someone played in survival mode and then switched back to creative mode. Otherwise, a larger area of damage would probably be caused by a player, whether authorized or uninvited, intentional or not (such as TNT accidents). Though, really, I can't imagine why someone with the skills to hack into a computer system would then target kids' minecraft worlds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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