Basically, if you don't confirm your email you can't:

• Share a project
  

• Comment
  

• Create a studio
  

• Join a studio
  

• Follow people
  

• Love and fav projects? (idk about this one)
  

• Post on the forums (idk about this one either)
  

So, it's pretty much restricted. But is there a point in collecting emails? All I see is resetting your password, messages from Contact Us, and notifications about Scratch social events and stuff.

Most websites with a sign-in feature ask for your email, since they need confirmation that you are not a bot.

Probably because if you need to contact them in contact us, they can reply back, and they need you to confirm it so an impostor trying to use your stuff won't do something dumb.

and prime is also right-

if one person says amogus im not going to be happy

happy_creature1 wrote:

Probably because if you need to contact them in contact us, they can reply back, and they need you to confirm it so an impostor trying to use your stuff won't do something dumb.

if one person says amogus im not going to be happy

That's pretty sus ngl

They have access to IP addresses for IP banning.

Prime689 wrote:

happy_creature1 wrote:

Probably because if you need to contact them in contact us, they can reply back, and they need you to confirm it so an impostor trying to use your stuff won't do something dumb.

if one person says amogus im not going to be happy

That's pretty sus ngl

They have access to IP addresses for IP banning.

ah ok…

grabs imposter's gun c u t e l y

happy_creature1 wrote:

Probably because if you need to contact them in contact us, they can reply back, and they need you to confirm it so an impostor trying to use your stuff won't do something dumb.

and prime is also right-

if one person says amogus im not going to be happy

amogus
For the OP: It's to prevent bots.

New Scratcher status prevents spamming, email is for confirmation. I think the email is needed (for interaction) also to prevent spamming?

My guess is to be able to reset passwords. It's a kids site and I'd imagine kids sites are especially prone to password resets.

Prime689 wrote:

happy_creature1 wrote:

Probably because if you need to contact them in contact us, they can reply back, and they need you to confirm it so an impostor trying to use your stuff won't do something dumb.

if one person says amogus im not going to be happy

That's pretty sus ngl

They have access to IP addresses for IP banning.

IP bans are useful, but those are reactive, not preemptive. So basically IP bans will block spammers who've already acted from going further, but it won't keep them from joining the site and sending out a bunch of spam in the first place; requiring email confirmation helps there!

Story time!

Once upon a time, long ago a few bots came into the forums and started posting inappropriate pictures, because there was no restriction on creating accounts, now a bot will need an email ID for making such posts with bad pictures, it makes it harder for bots to do this, so there has been a sudden decrease in the number of bots on Scratch.

Moral of the story - Making a thing too hard, may make it impossible, for a good cause .

THE END!
Authored by Chiroyce

I believe it's so that users can receive emails about getting banned if they post inappropriate content.

If a user cannot share new projects at all, it is usually because they haven't verified their account happens he's leaving.