We agreed time limits on our recording sessions – half an hour per child split between three 10-minute episodes – and for my part, I learned how to disable comments on the uploaded videos. In our case, these included sitting both my sons down and explaining why I didn’t want them to use their real names in their videos – or to talk about their families, where they live or any other personal information.īoth had to make up their own characters, settling on “Percy Panther” and “Chickeny Chap”, and just as importantly remember those names while recording. Making at least one Minecraft video and publishing it on YouTube seemed like a fun project, but one requiring some strict ground rules. I have no ambitions for my children to be the next Stampy or DanTDM, but like a lot of parents, I’d love them to find the ways they like to express themselves creatively – whether that’s writing stories, drawing and painting, making up songs and playing instruments, or other activities. They’re a combination of creative play, storytelling, problem-solving and self-expression – and often collaboration. The best Minecraft videos aren’t just someone playing and gabbling about it. First, could their children really make Minecraft videos for YouTube, and if so, how? To which the short answers are “Yes” and “More easily than you think”.Ī third question: should their children be allowed to make Minecraft videos for YouTube? That’s a bit more complicated, as I found out.Īt the same time, their creative urges made me feel quite proud. At a recent event, I asked ‘who in the audience is a YouTuber?’ and the majority put their hand up: they all want to do it.”įor parents, this is sparking several questions. “Even if they’re not recording, they’re speaking as if they’re doing a video.
“I would say that the majority of my audience has tried making video, even if it’s just using their parents’ phone and filming the TV screen as they speak,” said Garrett, when I interviewed him for the Guardian in October 2015. But whereas the historical cliche about pop fans has them miming with a hairbrush to their favourite stars’ songs, today’s children understand that they can do exactly what their Minecraft idols are doing, on the same stage – YouTube.
For tweens and teens around the world, these are the new pop stars.