Updated Minecraft Policies Allow Moderators to Permanently Ban Players

Mojang now has new Minecraft policies in place that’ll allow human moderators to levy permanent [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Mojang now has new Minecraft policies in place that'll allow human moderators to levy permanent bans against players who are in violation of community guidelines, the developer announced this week. The new policies apply to online interactions between players in things like Realms and Featured Servers but do not apply to single-player Minecraft experiences. Permanent bans are the only ones that can be issued right now, but the developer said it's working to enable moderators with the ability to distribute temporary bans for less severe offenses.

This new banning procedure detailed this week will apply to the Bedrock versions of the game which means it'll affect players on the Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms, but not the Java edition of the game. These permanent bans currently extend to all versions of Minecraft except for Minecraft Dungeons.

"Minecraft moderators can now ban players who do not follow our Community Guidelines when sending online messages using our services (Realms) or Featured Servers, and communicating online through signposts and books," the announcement of the new banning procedures said. "Of course, the content of single player games is not moderated."

For those worried about getting a permanent ban on a whim from one of the moderators, Mojang Community Manager MC_Raijinn said in a post on the game's subreddit those who will be issuing the bans are "highly trained moderators." The Minecraft dev added that the focus of these policies is to root out the "worst offenses out there" and that the review process in place for suspected offenders will avoid questionable situations.

A support page for Minecraft's banning policies listed a number of different infractions players could partake in that'd call for a permanent ban. Hate speech, sexual content, impersonating Mojang staff, using cheats or exploits, and a number of other standards for community guidelines were mentioned. The same support page also outlined the severity of the bans by saying they are "permanent, non-negotiable, and cannot be removed by Support" and would affect essentially all aspects of Minecraft.

"Players that have been found to be in violation of our Community Standards will find the message above when they attempt to sign in to Minecraft on any platform (non-Java edition)," the support article said while referencing an image that included a notice about a ban. "In this state, players will not be allowed to play on servers, join Realms, host or join multiplayer games, or use the marketplace. They will also not be allowed to access Minecraft Earth. Additionally, Xbox players will not have access to their worlds."

The new moderation actions for the Bedrock version of Minecraft are in effect at this time now that they've been announced and detailed.

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