I get where you're coming from and I'm in the same boat. I play Minecraft and some of the media I consume are Minecraft SMPs and Let's Plays. My soon-to-be-7-year-old has picked up the game and now regularly plays in my world (not that is issue free, but that's a different article :-) )
I understand why Microsoft is doing it and I even agree in part with Microsoft's measures in some ways. Aside from the direct protection of kids, they're also probably trying to be pre-emptive... forestalling the day or already complying with the day when the government says they have to do this sort of thing.
What I disagree with is that it's all or nothing. Public servers that wish to not participate should be allowed to not to. Sure have the client give a warning that you're logging into the wild west, even have it give a warning every time you log into the same server. But don't force all servers to do it. Microsoft also has parent controls which allow me to determine if my kid can use his account on any public server (by default nope)... finesse that a bit to let me choose only Microsoft moderated public servers. Even maybe give me the ability to whitelist servers for my kid's account. And then let everyone else that doesn't want to comply with Microsoft's vision of civility online to enter those servers that don't comply at their discretion, risk, or peril.
This would achieve the goals that your after (and me too for my kid) while not forcing society down the path of conformity.
I understand why Microsoft is doing it and I even agree in part with Microsoft's measures in some ways. Aside from the direct protection of kids, they're also probably trying to be pre-emptive... forestalling the day or already complying with the day when the government says they have to do this sort of thing.
What I disagree with is that it's all or nothing. Public servers that wish to not participate should be allowed to not to. Sure have the client give a warning that you're logging into the wild west, even have it give a warning every time you log into the same server. But don't force all servers to do it. Microsoft also has parent controls which allow me to determine if my kid can use his account on any public server (by default nope)... finesse that a bit to let me choose only Microsoft moderated public servers. Even maybe give me the ability to whitelist servers for my kid's account. And then let everyone else that doesn't want to comply with Microsoft's vision of civility online to enter those servers that don't comply at their discretion, risk, or peril.
This would achieve the goals that your after (and me too for my kid) while not forcing society down the path of conformity.