[Thank you for all the kind comments! I won’t reply to everything since I’m running out of ways to say “thank you,” but know that I am eternally grateful towards everyone heeding this message! Stay safe, Scratch ^^] Hi. There’s something I’ve been seeing a lot on this website. Lately, there’s been a major issue with people sharing in their “About Me” their: -Age -Age + Birthday (Day, Month) -Birth Year -Full Birthday (Day, Month, Year) -Chinese zodiac -Grade This is extremely concerning, given that the majority of users on this site are under 18, and even more are under 16. But wait, why is sharing this information such a big deal? Nowhere on the internet is safe from creeps. There are people out there, both in real life and on the internet, who are not well-intentioned with people under 18. Many online creeps will pose as fellow teens/kids to gain your trust, then encourage you to do things that are harmful, immoral, or even illegal, often behind your family and friends’ backs. Sharing any of the above information will make it all the easier for potential creeps to target you. “But this is a kid’s site! It should be safe(r) to share my age.” Exactly. Scratch is a kid’s site. Even though there’s decent moderation when it comes to harmful/explicit content, where would be the first place a creep would go to look for kids to target, then potentially take them offsite to bypass the filters? “But I’m not sharing my age! Just my [insert last 4 items on the list].” Just because you don’t explicitly state something doesn’t mean someone can’t figure it out, especially if you provide them with other info. If you share your birth year but nothing else, the exact age you’ll be turning that year can be found with [Current Year] minus [Your Birth Year]. Try it. If you share your whole birthday (Day/Month/Year), you can go an extra step and figure out exactly how many years, months, and days old you are. It’s just as bad as sharing your age and birthday without the year. Sharing a Chinese zodiac may not seem as bad, given how each zodiac covers multiple years. But let’s say someone is trying to figure out your age, and you wrote on your profile that you’re a Snake. Well, it’s currently year of the Snake (2025), and you definitely weren’t born just this year. You can deduce that very few people born before the 2000s would be using Scratch, let alone making the kind of content you post, which lowers the possible years to 2001 and 2013, meaning you’re either 24 or 12. It’d be pretty easy to figure out how old you are from there. If you put your grade, there’s only 2 possible ages you could be at the moment (4 if some weird cutoff shenanigans happened and you’re younger/older than everyone else in your class). If you say you’re in 6th grade, it’s easy to figure out that you’re more than likely 11 or 12. I wouldn’t recommend lying about your age either (unless it’s obviously a joke, like saying -1982737 or 2, which I do sometimes), as it’s pretty easy to tell if you’re actually younger based on the way you behave. So there. Sorry that was long, but it needed to be said because it’s important. I see so many people endangering themselves online in so many ways, but I addressed age specifically since it’s what I see the most on Scratch. The general rule of thumb on the internet is not to share any personally identifiable information, such as locations (just country is fine), name (especially if your name is uncommon where you live), contact information, pictures of yourself or locations near where you live, and, most prominently on Scratch, age. Thank you. [Post-Script] One of the main questions I’ve been getting asked in whether it’s safe to share JUST your birthday, without the year or your age. The answer: It depends. While a birth date and month alone are not enough to piece together your age or identity, you’ll have to be careful in making sure that you don’t accidentally share anything else. You could have JUST the day and month on your profile, only to say something that unintentionally reveals how old you are (Maybe something like “ugh I hated [insert grade] the pandemic was the woorst"), and voila. So basically, even though you *can* share *some* information without immediately endangering yourself, that doesn’t mean that you *should*, especially if you tend to be on the chattier/more open side. I get that some of you might want to celebrate your birthday online though, to which I suggest using the day your account was created as opposed to your actual birthday, as that information is already readily available and doesn’t pertain to your actual identity. For example, I use October 13th in my bio since it’s the day my first account was made :) That way, you’re able to stay safe, and it’s like you’re celebrating your birthday twice!
