Sharing Settings & Privacy

Learning Goals 3 min

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1. Tell the difference between a Public project (anyone can see and remix it) and an Unshared project (only you can see it).
2. Add useful tags (like #game, #animation, #malaysia) so your project shows up when someone searches.
3. Name three things that are visible to strangers on your project page, and three things that should never appear in your projects or comments.

Warm-Up — the screenshot game 7 min

Imagine you take a screenshot of any one of your Scratch projects right now, post it on WhatsApp, and your friend sees it. There are two columns of information visible:

• Things only you should be able to see (your account stuff).
• Things anyone in the world can see the moment you hit Share.

Sort these eight items into the two columns:

1. The project's title.
2. The password you used to sign into Scratch.
3. Your Scratch username.
4. Your real name (the one your parent typed into your account).
5. The Stage with the green flag.
6. Your email address.
7. Your Notes & Credits text.
8. The country you set in your profile (just the country — Malaysia).

Today's lesson is the line between those two columns — what crosses the public line, what doesn't, and the choices you make at upload time that decide which side a project lands on.

New Concept — Share, Tags, and the privacy line 15 min

Every Scratch project lives in one of two states. You pick which one. You can switch between them as often as you like.

Public vs Unshared

• Public (Shared) — Hit the orange Share button at the top of the editor. Your project now has a public URL anyone can open. People can play it, click See Inside, hit Remix, and leave comments. Other Scratchers can search for it.
• Unshared — Default state for every new project. The project exists in your account. You can open and edit it. No one else can see it, find it in search, or guess its URL. If you give the URL to a friend, the page says "This project is unshared."

You can move a project between states any time. From inside the editor or from My Stuff, you'll see an Unshare button on shared projects. One click and it disappears from the public site — comments and remixes stop being visible too. Re-share later and they come back.

Tags — how strangers find you

When you share, Scratch asks you to pick up to three tags from a dropdown list. Tags are how the search engine groups your project. The options are things like:

• #animations — moving cartoons, no input from the player.
• #games — the player presses keys, scores points, wins or loses.
• #stories — multi-scene narratives, often with dialogue.
• #art — drawings, generative patterns, slideshow galleries.
• #music — projects that play music or let the user compose.
• #tutorials — projects that teach the viewer something.

Pick the ones that actually describe your project. A duck-shooting game with no story is #games, not #stories. A static drawing with no animation is #art, not #animations. Wrong tags mean wrong audience, which means people open your project, realise it's not what they wanted, and leave — that hurts your project, not helps it.

You can also write your own free-form text in the Notes & Credits like "#malaysia #klang #firstgame". Those aren't real searchable tags but they show up in your notes and other Malaysian Scratchers searching for local content will spot them.

What's visible to strangers

Once you hit Share, the public project page shows:

• Your username (the one you sign in with — e.g. @aisyah_codes).
• Your display name if you set one (a friendlier name shown next to your projects — many Scratchers leave this the same as their username).
• Your project's title, Instructions, Notes & Credits, and Stage.
• Every sprite, costume, sound, and script inside the project (because anyone can click See Inside).
• Any comments you've left on other projects, on your profile, and on this one.
• Your country (just the country, not city or address) if you set one.

And the public page does not show:

• Your real name (Scratch never publishes this).
• Your email address.
• Your birth month and year (used only to verify age, never shown).
• Your password (obviously).
• Any unshared projects you have in your account.

Safe-sharing rules for ages 10–14

The Scratch team built the public/private line carefully, but the line only protects you if you don't paste private stuff into the public parts. Three rules:

1. No personal info in your project notes. Don't write your full real name, your school's name, your home address, your phone number, your parent's WhatsApp, or your email. Even if the project is just for your friends — strangers find it through tags.
2. No full name on your sprites. If your username is aisyah_codes, signing your title screen "by Aisyah" is fine. Putting "by Aisyah binti Rahman from SK Bukit Damansara" on a costume is not. Look at every costume you imported or drew — if any of them have your real name or your school name baked in, redraw or remove.
3. No personal info in comments. The comment box on every project page is also public. Don't post your email, your Discord, your phone, or your address there — even if someone you trust asks. If you want to keep in touch with a Scratch friend, message your parent and ask them to set up the conversation.

A small visual example

Picture two title-screen sprites for the same game. The first one breaks the rules; the second one follows them:

when flag clicked
switch costume to [title-bad v]
say [Welcome to Aisyah's Adventure!] for (3) seconds
        

when flag clicked
switch costume to [title-good v]
say [Welcome!] for (3) seconds
        

The fix is to redraw the title costume in the Scratch paint editor. Delete the school-and-real-name text. Type "by @aisyah_codes" instead. Save. The sprite still says hello — it just doesn't tell strangers your school.

Worked Example — sharing "Durian Drop" safely 12 min

Same game from last lesson — Durian Drop. The notes are written. The game works. Now it's time to actually hit Share. We'll walk through it slowly the first time so the steps stick.

Step 1 — Final notes pass

From the editor, click See project page. Re-read your Instructions box and your Notes & Credits box. Look for: any full name, any school name, any phone number, any email. If you find any, click the pencil icon and remove them. If not, move on.

Step 2 — Sprite costume audit

Go back into the editor. Click each sprite in turn. Click the Costumes tab for each one. Scan every costume for text. If any costume has your real name, your school, or your address painted on it, fix it in the paint editor. Save.

Step 3 — Project title check

Look at the project title at the top of the editor. "Durian Drop" is fine. "Durian Drop by Aisyah binti Rahman" is not — that's the full name leak. If the title has a full name, change it. Username-only is fine: "Durian Drop by @aisyah_codes".

Step 4 — Click the orange Share button

Top of the editor, big orange Share button. Click it. A small dialog appears asking you to confirm and to pick tags.

Step 5 — Pick the right tags

The dropdown shows the official tags. Durian Drop is a game where the player presses arrow keys to catch falling fruit — that's clearly #games. Tick it. You can pick up to three; for this project, one is enough. Don't tick #stories — there's no story. Don't tick #tutorials — you're not teaching anything. Wrong tags hurt; right tags help.

Step 6 — Hit Share again to confirm

Final confirm. The dialog closes. The Share button changes — now it shows the project is shared. Above the Stage on the project page, you'll see Unshare where Share used to be.

Step 7 — Copy the URL and test it

Copy the project's URL from your browser's address bar. Open a new private (incognito) browser window. Paste the URL. Hit enter. You're now seeing your project the way a stranger sees it — no logged-in account, no special access. Click around. Read the boxes. Make sure nothing private is visible.

Step 8 — Add Malaysian flavour to your notes (optional)

Many Malaysian Scratchers add tags like #malaysia or #klang to the bottom of their Notes & Credits to help local kids find their projects. This is informal — Scratch's official tags don't include a country — but it works. Add one or two if you want local Scratchers to spot your work.

What you just did: shared a project on the public internet, with thousands of potential viewers, without leaking a single piece of personal information. This is the entire skill. Get good at the audit and you can share dozens of projects safely.

Try It Yourself — three sharing-safety drills 15 min

when [m v] key pressed
switch costume to [credits v]
        

Mini-Challenge — "Faris's birthday card" 5 min

Spot the privacy leaks

Faris makes an animated birthday card project for his cousin and wants to share it on Scratch so his cousin can open it from anywhere. He sets it up like this:

• Project title: "Birthday Card for Iman Iskandar (Standard 5, SMK Damansara) — Made by Faris bin Rashid"
• Notes & Credits: "Hi Iman! WhatsApp me at 012-345-6789 when you see this so I know it worked. — Faris"
• One sprite is a costume that says, in giant text, "Happy Birthday Iman! From your cousin Faris (Form 1, SMK Bukit Damansara, KL)."
• Tags chosen: #animations, #stories.

Faris is about to click Share. List every privacy problem in his setup, and write what the fixed version should look like.

Recap 3 min

Scratch projects live in one of two states: Public (shared — anyone in the world can see, play, comment, and remix) or Unshared (only you can see it). You move between states with the orange Share button and the matching Unshare button. When you share, Scratch asks you to pick up to three official tags so the search engine knows where to file your project. Your username, project title, Instructions, Notes & Credits, every sprite, every costume, and every comment are all public. Your real name, email, password, and birthdate are private. Safe sharing for ages 10–14 means three rules: no personal info in the notes, no real names on costumes, and no personal info in comments. Always re-read and audit before clicking Share.

Public (Shared)

A project that has been shared with the Scratch community via the orange Share button. Anyone in the world can open the URL, play the project, click See Inside, hit Remix, and leave comments.

Unshared

The default state of a new project. The project lives in your My Stuff and only you can see, edit, or open it. Sending the URL to someone else just shows them "This project is unshared."

Tags

Up to three labels you pick from Scratch's official list when sharing. Tags decide which search results your project shows up in — #games, #animations, #stories, #art, #music, #tutorials. Pick tags that genuinely describe your project; wrong tags bring the wrong audience.

Username vs real name

Your username (e.g. @aisyah_codes) is what strangers see — it's public the moment you share anything. Your real name is what your parent typed when they made your account; Scratch keeps it private and never displays it.

Privacy leak

When personal information you intended to keep private accidentally ends up in a public place — your full name in a costume, your phone number in the notes, your school name in the title. Fixed by auditing every visible part of your project before hitting Share.

Sharing audit

The pre-Share habit of checking your title, every costume, your Instructions, your Notes & Credits, and your tags for personal info or wrong tags. Takes about ten minutes. Saves a lot of regret.

Homework 2 min

The Sharing Audit. Do a full audit on three of your currently-shared projects (or, if you don't have three shared projects, do a full audit on three of your finished unshared projects). For each one, check:

1. The project title — username-only credit, no full name, no school.
2. Every costume across every sprite — no real names, school names, addresses, or phone numbers painted on the art.
3. The Instructions box — no personal info.
4. The Notes & Credits box — no personal info, all imported music/art credited.
5. The tags — do they actually describe the project, or were they just guesses?

Fix anything that fails the audit. If a project passes all five checks, leave it alone. If a project would need a lot of rework to pass, consider Unshare instead — pull it back from the public site until you have time to fix it properly.

Bring back next class:

• The list of projects you audited and what you found in each one.
• Your answer to: "Of the three projects, which one had the biggest privacy leak? Was it something you painted onto a sprite, something you typed into the notes, or something in the title?"

Heads up for next class: SCR-L04-45 covers Studios & Collections — how to gather your best projects into one curated portfolio page so strangers don't have to scroll through your fifty practice projects to find your four best ones.