Scratch Safety

This page contains some tips to remain safe on the Scratch Website. Remember to keep personal information private. Do not share your full name, address, email address, phone number, or other personal contact information.

These tips can be expanded to all internet safety.

Sharing Content

Content on Scratch

With all shared items, including projects, comments, pictures, etc., think of these questions:

1. Would you want your parents to see it?
2. Would you want your grandparents to see it?
3. Would you want your worst enemy to see this?
4. Would you want your best friend to see this?
5. What would be someone's reaction if it is printed on the front page of a newspaper?

Remember:

Nothing on the internet is completely safe. Once it is there, it no longer belongs to you. Even if you delete it, others can save their own copies or back it up, and it will survive forevermore.

Music

• When sharing music you created with Audacity, Garageband, etc., check to see if your name or personal information has been added on in the credits.
• macOS tends to put your name on Garageband projects. To clear this,

1. Open GarageBand
2. Open Preferences ⌘ Cmd+,
3. Open the "My Info" tab
4. Delete your name from the text boxes.

• You can also avoid this by changing your account's name to something that does not reveal any personal information.

Images

See also: Image Hosting

• Only share images of other people if you have permission from them, or the original photographer got permission from them to take it, and for you to use it.
• Only share images of yourself if you have permission from your parent/guardian. In Scratch, face reveals are not allowed, and an image of yourself is only allowed if it isn't the main focus of the project.
• Do not use your email to host them.
• Do not use local file paths (i.e. file:///someone/somewhere/something.png or driveletter:\Users\Person\Documents\image.jpg) from your computer. They will not work and might give away personal information. Instead, upload images to an Image Host.
• With a paint editor, black out personal information from screenshots, especially screenshots of folders and file pickers that display your home directory's name. If you do this in the Scratch Paint Editor, make sure you draw in bitmap.

Online Friends

• Please consider that if you want to be completely safe, try to talk to those you only know in real life. However, for those who don't have any friends that go online, talking to those you don't know in real life can be necessary for social engagement online.
• Despite how much you're close to a "friend", never agree to meet up in real life. The "friend" might be the opposite of what they say about themselves online.
• Sharing personal info, such as full name, street address, and phone number, is never a good idea, and is in fact against the Community Guidelines.

Unmoderated Discussion

The Community Guidelines prohibit providing links or contact information for sites that allow unmoderated discussion because the Scratch Team cannot ensure the safety of users on these sites. Asking other users for such information is also not allowed. While the term "unmoderated discussion" is not explicitly defined, it is generally interpreted to mean a site where discussions can take place in a non-public setting that do not have a dedicated, professional moderation team that ensures the safety of communication to a standard comparable to that of the Scratch website itself. Self-moderation or moderation by individuals does not meet this requirement.

Some examples of unmoderated discussion include but are not limited to:

• Discord
• Email
• Instagram
• Google Docs, Slides, Forms, Sheets, Meet (users can leave unmoderated comments and messages)
• Microsoft Teams
• Skype
• Twitter (also known as X)
• Zoom

See Also

• Phishing
• Face Reveal