super-ego wrote:

knowitall1237 wrote:

Magudragon wrote:

"The school is not allowed by law to allow students to use websites that share data with the outside world. This is why youtube and google maps were blocked, but google classroom is allowed. Google shares information on youtube with anyone who is willing to pay their price."

wh- HUH?
Ok I need to comment on this.
The censorship is getting out of hand. I understand blocking social media sites intended for adults, but blocking literally every form of sharing data over the internet is WAY too far. Especially Scratch of all websites, which has, you know, actual moderation

No it doesn;t

Well, it has reporting and moderation, sometimes working too effectively or not effectively enough, but the report button and contact scratch team page really count as moderation. I just think the school district is being far far too controlling on the kids. You know, instead of trying to nurture a school focused environment, they are only making kids try and find more workarounds and raise anger. I mean, tbh, I guess schools can have SOME blocking (note the word SOME and I mean SOME not like A LOT) but when you start banning things like Scratch which is clearly designed for kids and on the more whatsoever Youtube which all my teachers use to teach us, then a school is too controlling. District? Oh I won't even go there. I mean, just teach dang digital safety and citizenship for crying out loud, it isn't that hard.

gdfsgdfsgdfg wrote:

YT was also blocked in my city's DOE accounts
it was a recent ban (late 2026)

gotta convince the DOE to not block Scratch either

anyways to main OP
using just this forum post is unlikely gonna convince the school to unblock Scratch
there should be a different solution

have you found a solution yet? (that isn't a forum topic)

ActionKid2089 wrote:

medians wrote:

What are the other reasons though?

EDIT: But Scratch can be used in education, I mean even NGP is going to allow Google accounts so in my opinion sharing information is really just a fault of the students themselves, not of the platform. And, Scratch Team doesn't encourage sharing of information.

My school district is going to love the google sign-in, our district has a Google Workspace plan.
Sad that for MY SCHOOL in the district, Scratch got IP blocked for some reason.

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.

ionizedgas wrote:

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.

all of this, just to still be used by users

ionizedgas wrote:

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.

How are you going to search stuff up then?

DanielaScunk wrote:

ionizedgas wrote:

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.

How are you going to search stuff up then?

DuckDuckGo, Kagi, Bing, Ecosia, Qwant, and so on.

o97doge wrote:

DanielaScunk wrote:

ionizedgas wrote:

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.

How are you going to search stuff up then?

DuckDuckGo, Kagi, Bing, Ecosia, Qwant, and so on.

You basically just stole what I was going to say lol.

There is Opera, FireFox and Brave as well, but I just prefer to use DuckDuckGo more over Google now personally.

PaperMarioFan2024 wrote:

o97doge wrote:

DanielaScunk wrote:

ionizedgas wrote:

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.

How are you going to search stuff up then?

DuckDuckGo, Kagi, Bing, Ecosia, Qwant, and so on.

You basically just stole what I was going to say lol.

There is Opera, FireFox and Brave as well, but I just prefer to use DuckDuckGo more over Google now personally.

And also DuckDuckGo has a much better name!

DanielaScunk wrote:

How are you going to search stuff up then?

Not to be rude, but why are you saying this as if google is the only search engine and as if Chrome is the only web browser

super-ego wrote:

knowitall1237 wrote:

Magudragon wrote:

"The school is not allowed by law to allow students to use websites that share data with the outside world. This is why youtube and google maps were blocked, but google classroom is allowed. Google shares information on youtube with anyone who is willing to pay their price."

wh- HUH?
Ok I need to comment on this.
The censorship is getting out of hand. I understand blocking social media sites intended for adults, but blocking literally every form of sharing data over the internet is WAY too far. Especially Scratch of all websites, which has, you know, actual moderation

No it doesn;t

Yes it does

PaperMarioFan2024 wrote:

There is Opera, FireFox and Brave as well, but I just prefer to use DuckDuckGo more over Google now personally.

I mean those are more like web browsers though

Maybe your school is evil for goguardian and other goguardian knock offs

medians wrote:

DanielaScunk wrote:

How are you going to search stuff up then?

Not to be rude, but why are you saying this as if google is the only search engine and as if Chrome is the only web browser

super-ego wrote:

knowitall1237 wrote:

Magudragon wrote:

"The school is not allowed by law to allow students to use websites that share data with the outside world. This is why youtube and google maps were blocked, but google classroom is allowed. Google shares information on youtube with anyone who is willing to pay their price."

wh- HUH?
Ok I need to comment on this.
The censorship is getting out of hand. I understand blocking social media sites intended for adults, but blocking literally every form of sharing data over the internet is WAY too far. Especially Scratch of all websites, which has, you know, actual moderation

No it doesn;t

Yes it does

PaperMarioFan2024 wrote:

There is Opera, FireFox and Brave as well, but I just prefer to use DuckDuckGo more over Google now personally.

I mean those are more like web browsers though

Its because of like being strangers with someone or maybe your school is getting scratch blocked

:Smiling Face Holding Back Tears Emoji:

Magudragon wrote:

:Smiling Face Holding Back Tears Emoji:

(: I opeh ti etsg etterb oons… I Illw ryt ym est b ot elph!

this topic is not going to convince the school anyways

edit:
I have no evidence but we will see

gdfsgdfsgdfg wrote:

this topic is not going to convince the school anyways

Crud…
Well, there must be something that can be done about this. This matter cannot just go unsolved or without any outcome to it at all.

The fact that schools alone are banning websites with edu. at the end of it is already posing major concern and red flags in itself.

And yes, I know that they’re going to be redirecting links towards scratch.org (I think I am very well aware of the switch from mit by now).

please like this
[https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/5242797518618624

PaperMarioFan2024 wrote:

Crud…
Well, there must be something that can be done about this. This matter cannot just go unsolved or without any outcome to it at all.

The fact that schools alone are banning websites with edu. at the end of it is already posing major concern and red flags in itself.

And yes, I know that they’re going to be redirecting links towards scratch.org (I think I am very well aware of the switch from mit by now).

well only because forums is a hidden part of scratch
and theres only like 1 ST member in this topic, rest are made by normal users
(i have no evidence to back up the claim that this topic isn't gonna convince the schook but we will see)

most schools disses on wikipedia.org
yet one of my teachers used a fandom wiki for one character

…it should be the teacher's responsibility to see if their students are on task.
source

Exactly. It should not be a problem for the school, and the IT administration in particular, to handle. But how would the IT admin know about things that should be blocked? Other than looking at student’s search histories, they would have to get their information from the teachers. So the teachers would already know, so why can’t they do anything? I bet you that it all falls down to that issue that teacher’s can’t say “no” anymore without getting parents upset.

Teach kids internet safety. Restricting basic communication on the internet will only leave people unprepared to use it in the future. Schools can't expect everyone to have a personal computer at home to learn this stuff.
source

I highly agree with this. It’s just like with AI! I always tell people “Don’t try to block AI out of kid’s lives.” I say that not to get kids to keep using AI, I say that to help them understand and learn what AI can do so that they make better decisions later in life (e.g. choosing not to use AI because you know the problems.) If a child does not learn the good and the bad of something at a young age, they will not know why NOT to use something later.

My teacher replied saying:

“The school is not allowed by law to allow students to use websites that share data with the outside world. This is why youtube and google maps were blocked, but google classroom is allowed. Google shares information on youtube with anyone who is willing to pay their price.”
source

To that extent, the entire internet should be blocked. There’s always backend stuff going on with websites, and you don’t know what information is getting out, even what websites may claim is “secure.” And here’s something to bake your noodle! What does Google Classroom have? Your name. What else can people figure out based on the classes that you take within Google Classroom? Your grade. And from your grade, they can get your age. With name and age, people can, sadly, learn a lot about you without your consent. Schools don’t seem to realize this aspect.
And about YouTube selling information. The teacher should have provided a source to back up that claim if they wanted it to be taken as the truth.

Ironic thing is is that Google is extremely lenient on privacy, they will gladly steal your personal information left and right, yet schools in many places seem to have settled on Google everything, Google computers, Google operating systems, Google browsers, Google services, everything is Google yet they put Scratch on their block list because it might compromise personal student info… Yeah I hate Google, if you couldn't tell. School Chromebooks are more like expensive paperweights than actual computers.
source

My school, albeit an online school (not at a physical building,) is going to Google stuff. We used to use Microsoft everything: Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and all that fun stuff (and it was better.) But this year? All Google. My old computer had an issue and we had to return it to the school. We were returned with a new Chromebook (which is slow and laggy!) The public school that I attended up until 4th grade used Google the last year that I was there and it was just hard to use and finicky for most things. I thought it was just the schools I went to, but no. It seems that it is everywhere.


Now, why did I write this long post? Not to argue, not to complain, but to bring up some good sources and arguments not just from this topic but from my own experiences as well. And why? To possibly help you bring up a good argument against the school.
You can take some or all of this to the school, either the teacher or the IT admin and tell them your reasoning here. If they refuse to accept these reasons, then the next course of action should be to tell your parents and bring up the same reasoning. The school should not (as I see it) refuse to accept something that benefits students. Of course, you don’t need to do that, but if you want something done about it, then you’ll have to try.
*sigh* Schools aren’t the same anymore, are they? :(

well theres probably a reason why it's like this

usa has a 64 CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) in 2025
not too low but not high enough either

(lower the worse the corruption is, higher the lesser the corruption)

not to mention
we all know it's “capitalist”

not not to mention
in my city, ONLY my elementary school used scratch
middle and high school didn't

my city's doe also recently blocked YT
so theres a chance that scratch could be blocked as well

also the op's school saying that google products are secure
is like saying that microsoft's edge and default windows 11 is not spyware