Minecraft and Minecraft Education are amongst the safest gaming software available for all users (regardless of age).
To keep your child safe, it is imperative that you have control over the account (the Microsoft account) that your child is using to login.
Using Minecraft without an account
This is the safest way to use Minecraft. This is when the child is using Minecraft without signing in (using email). This, however, means, that they can't play with others unless they are using the same wifi. This type of play is called a LAN (local Area Network) Game (see diagram below). To play with one another, one child will open their world, and the other will click on their name once it appears on LAN Games.
Using Minecraft with an account
If your child is using a login to sign in, please ensure that the account is set up through Microsoft as a 'child' account. This means that you will be able to control all safety settings. (i.e. don't let the child use their own email address to login).
By being able to control their security settings, you will be able to log in to Xbox and have control over 'MultiPlayer' (see below). This is critical to ensuring your child's safety. In this section, please set the MultiPlayer settings for your child to only play with friends. This means that they wont be invited to play games with people they don't know or have people they don't know join their game without permission. More information on how to do this, can be found here.
To join each other, each person needs to click on Friends, then Add Friend (see below). They are then to add each others GamerTag (their name in Minecraft). Save as Friend and then Save as Favourite. This will allow Minecraft to remember them. Once you do this, each player are able to see each other when they are both online and playing Minecraft.
Minecraft Education
Minecraft Education is extremely safe to use as it is locked down by the students school or department. Children attending a public school can only play with other children who also attend a public school. The best part about this, is that the child is not 'seen' as playing Minecraft by other users. The only way for children to play together is by one of them sending a 'Join Code' to another to join (pictured below). Join codes are unique and change frequently as a security measure.
Children who attend Catholic or independent schools or who are Home Schooled are only able to play with children in their own school. This is an increased security measure for these students.