NORTH EAST MINECRAFT FESTIVAL WILL TEACH PARENTS COMPUTER SAFETY…

A festival celebrating one of the most successful video games will help North East parents to keep their youngsters safe online.

Nethermined – an unofficial event around the game Minecraft – will be held in Newcastle for the third time on Feb 11-12 at Northumbria University Students’ Union.

And along with giving fans of the game the opportunity to be involved in a wide range of activities including playing Minecraft, meeting some of the top YouTube gamers and taking part in workshops, special sessions have also been put in place for parents.

A special Parents Zone has been set up as part of this year’s event, where parents can get valuable tips about protecting their children who play games online, as well as learning more about their youngsters’ favourite games.

Organiser Michelle Poller, who set up the festival three years ago for her daughter who was too young to go to official Minecraft events on her own, added that Nethermined also has a strong educational value.

“It’s not just about playing games for fun,” said Michelle, from Newcastle.

“Minecraft is now widely recognised as a virtual reality educational tool and we have brought in a number of experts, including IT Educator of the year 2015, Joel Mills, who will be showcasing the way virtual reality can be used in education.

“We are hoping that this will also attract schools from across the region who should find it extremely useful.”

To allow more people to attend organisers have also now released a family ticket for £60 which can be used by two adults and two children, or one adult and three children.

For more information email info@nethermined.com or to buy tickets visit http://www.nethermined.com/tickets