A Minecraft server for a school or club

Minecraft is a good fit for clubs, classes and youth groups: it is creative, collaborative and easy to start. A server for young players needs a little more care than one for adult friends. This guide covers the practical setup. It is advice on running a server, not legal advice, and the rules about children's data and consent differ between countries and organisations, so check with your school or group.

Decide who the server is for

A private, invitation-only server is much safer than a public one. Everyone who can join is someone you know. Keep it that way unless you have people to moderate a public server around the clock.

Control who can join

Turn on the whitelist and add only the members' usernames. Turn on enforce-whitelist so removing a name removes the player at once. See the whitelist guide.
Keep online-mode on, so each player is checked with Mojang and nobody can pretend to be somebody else.
Do not post the server address publicly.

Give adults the control

Make a small group of adult moderators with a permissions plugin such as LuckPerms, see how to set up LuckPerms. Give players only the commands they need.
Do not give operator status to young players. Use groups.
Add CoreProtect so every block change is logged and griefing can be rolled back, and GriefPrevention so members can protect their builds.

Keep chat friendly

Write a short set of server rules and show them on join or on a sign at spawn: be kind, no griefing, no sharing personal information.
Choose a plugin that filters or logs chat, or switch chat off and use a supervised voice or Discord channel instead.
Players can report others and mute chat in the game's own settings. Tell members how.
Let members know who to talk to if something upsets them.

Set the game up for the activity

Choose peaceful or easy difficulty if the point is building.
Use a creative world and a world border for build projects, so the world stays small and tidy.
Pre-build a spawn with the rules and a map, see the 3D map guide.

Back up often

Children's work matters to them. Schedule backups and keep several copies, see how to back up a world.

Accounts

Every player needs their own Minecraft: Java Edition account. Young players' Microsoft accounts are normally set up through a family account, which parents manage. Ask parents or guardians before you invite a young player, and tell them what the server is for and who runs it.

Minecraft Education

Mojang also makes Minecraft Education, a separate product built for classrooms, with lesson tools and its own accounts. It is worth a look if your use is teaching rather than a club, because it comes with the school-focused features a regular server does not have.

On Saryno

You can start with the free 1 GB for a small group, switch on the whitelist from the dashboard, and add memory if the group grows. Saryno is not affiliated with Mojang or Microsoft.