Discuss Scratch

wWSunPandaWw
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

I know that it's an extra level of security, but it seems too much at that point.
Take for example, my group of friends. If I were to say my age, you could pick from a good handful of five people.
Then the local Theater performing company (for young kids). You could pick from at least 20 people in the cast of our last show.
Then my city (it's not big, but not too small either). You could pick from at least 1,000 (probably WAY more than that!!) people my age!
Expand up into my country (the USA), and you could pick from probably over a million people my age!!!
Then, in the entire world–you could easily pick from over 100 million, probably, kids my age!
And yet, Scratch thinks that somebody can easily point me out just judging by my age?
The same goes for birthdays. There's a website where you can find celebrities who share your age (I'm not saying the name because I'm not sure if I should). I could find a really nice amount of people with my birthday there, but you can also take into consideration the non-famous people. In fact, there is literally somebody sitting next to be add I'm writing this who shares my birthday (actually I am a twin sooo…)!
But still, it's too risky for me to say my age and birthday? NOBODY is going look through a long, long, long list of people with my birthday just to find me and track me down. They'd probably be dead before they could find me.
I'm not even sharing my name, so how could you find me SO EASILY on Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, and other social media platforms? I dont even have social media, I'm just saying this for the people who do. By the way I describe my look, judging by my OC (who I made to resemble myself)? I have three friends who also fit into how I would describe myself, and I know plenty of other people who have similar hair and eye colors and skin tone.
In conclusion, sharing my age and name on scratch wouldn't really aid people in finding out where I live and what my name is. So why does the Scratch Team discourage it in the first place?
TheRealNetherBefore
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

Well, it's less that someone can find you via your birthday or age, it's more that your birthday and age tend to be important parts of accessing other information you might have, plus they can make you vulnerable. Age and/or birthday can often be involved in security questions, plus you often need to give them when you're applying for things. On top of that, there are some very unpleasant people on the internet who often seek out children to groom- knowing how old you are gives them an idea of how they can manipulate you and how likely you are to notice.
wWSunPandaWw
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

beeump (sigh…questions by forum helpers often get not a lot of answers. )

Last edited by wWSunPandaWw (May 28, 2018 22:01:02)

-ShadowOfTheFuture-
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

Dunno, maybe it's because there are criminals on the internet who specifically target people of a certain age range?
TheRealNetherBefore
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

-ShadowOfTheFuture- wrote:

Dunno, maybe it's because there are criminals on the internet who specifically target people of a certain age range?
Is that sarcasm?
DownsGameClub
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

Birthdays are a bit more iffy since it narrows down the age range. I'm not sure about disclosing your age though. I can bring a moderator to answer this question though…
Paddle2See
Scratch Team
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

Age and birthday are both pieces of information - that in conjunction with other information - can be used to uniquely identify you. So it makes good sense to just not put that information out there.
wWSunPandaWw
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

Paddle2See wrote:

Age and birthday are both pieces of information - that in conjunction with other information - can be used to uniquely identify you. So it makes good sense to just not put that information out there.
I understand your reasoning–but I said in my OP that it would still be pretty difficult to identify me just judging by my age and birthday if I didn't include my location, name, phone number, social media, etc, all of which are not allowed to be shared on Scratch and are pretty much necessary to really be able to “identify” someone just by them saying “I'm 13 and my birthday is March 2nd!” If there was a list of people that included their birthday and age, I could probably choose from 100,000+ people who are 13 and were born on March 2nd.
TheRealNetherBefore
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

wWSunPandaWw wrote:

I understand your reasoning–but I said in my OP that it would still be pretty difficult to identify me just judging by my age and birthday if I didn't include my location, name, phone number, social media, etc, all of which are not allowed to be shared on Scratch and are pretty much necessary to really be able to “identify” someone just by them saying “I'm 13 and my birthday is March 2nd!” If there was a list of people that included their birthday and age, I could probably choose from 100,000+ people who are 13 and were born on March 2nd.
You'd be surprised what you can actually identify, though. Along with age and birth date, your profile often reveals your country, interests and a username that you could potentially use elsewhere. Combine that with the fact that some users reveal a bit more than that, it not only gives people a good chance to identify you, it can also give people a very good idea of who you are.
wWSunPandaWw
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

TheRealNetherBefore wrote:

wWSunPandaWw wrote:

I understand your reasoning–but I said in my OP that it would still be pretty difficult to identify me just judging by my age and birthday if I didn't include my location, name, phone number, social media, etc, all of which are not allowed to be shared on Scratch and are pretty much necessary to really be able to “identify” someone just by them saying “I'm 13 and my birthday is March 2nd!” If there was a list of people that included their birthday and age, I could probably choose from 100,000+ people who are 13 and were born on March 2nd.
You'd be surprised what you can actually identify, though. Along with age and birth date, your profile often reveals your country, interests and a username that you could potentially use elsewhere. Combine that with the fact that some users reveal a bit more than that, it not only gives people a good chance to identify you, it can also give people a very good idea of who you are.
I only use wWSunPandaWw on this website (although most of my usernames on other websites tend to contain the word “panda” or something similar) the USA is really big. Plus, there are already Scratchers who use fake locations to protect their identity (like Antarctica, McDonald Islands, Christmas Island, etc), and I share my interests with tons of other Scratchers (art, animation, theater, etc) and my mascot looks a lot like other people's mascot (Such as PurpleKitten22). I still find it hard to believe that I can be tracked down if I say my age and birthday.
Cub56
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

I do kind of agree. There are 365 days in a non-leap year meaning that statistically, one in every 365 people in the world has the same birthday as you.
If you state your age and birthday, that's still one in every 365 people born in the same year as you. This is still hundreds of thousands of people so there is practically no way a stranger can work out your identity based only on your birthday.

The Scratch Team are probably concerned that if someone has enough other pieces of information about you, you could be identified, but this is still a highly unlikely situation.

As far as I know you are allowed to state your age on Scratch (there are hundreds of millions of other people your age) but they might be stricter on birthdays just to be safe for younger kids.
TheRealNetherBefore
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

wWSunPandaWw wrote:

I only use wWSunPandaWw on this website (although most of my usernames on other websites tend to contain the word “panda” or something similar) the USA is really big. Plus, there are already Scratchers who use fake locations to protect their identity (like Antarctica, McDonald Islands, Christmas Island, etc), and I share my interests with tons of other Scratchers (art, animation, theater, etc) and my mascot looks a lot like other people's mascot (Such as PurpleKitten22). I still find it hard to believe that I can be tracked down if I say my age and birthday.
It's less that you specifically are going to have any problems, or that someone is going to find you in real life. It's more that scratch's younger users are often less experienced in internet safety: a lot of users give away real-life details and some even post their own faces- with someone's birthdate, username and face (or favourite shows/books/ect) you could probably find their facebook if they had one.
Scratch wants to make sure that users don't put themselves in danger, so they make sure to cover all areas with their rules on personal information.
ScratchDiogoh
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

I've Seen Many People Saying the Age

People wrote:

Hello! I am 14 years old
TheRealNetherBefore
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

ScratchDiogoh wrote:

I've Seen Many People Saying the Age

People wrote:

Hello! I am 14 years old
Well, age is less of an issue, it's more giving away your birth date.
ScratchDiogoh
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

TheRealNetherBefore wrote:

ScratchDiogoh wrote:

I've Seen Many People Saying the Age

People wrote:

Hello! I am 14 years old
Well, age is less of an issue, it's more giving away your birth date.
I Never Seen Someone Post Birth Date
Still well
-ShadowOfTheFuture-
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

TheRealNetherBefore wrote:

-ShadowOfTheFuture- wrote:

Dunno, maybe it's because there are criminals on the internet who specifically target people of a certain age range?
Is that sarcasm?
I wasn't being sarcastic. (Sometimes I work things weirdly, so I'm sorry if it sounds like I was.)
ScratchDiogoh
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

-ShadowOfTheFuture- wrote:

TheRealNetherBefore wrote:

-ShadowOfTheFuture- wrote:

Dunno, maybe it's because there are criminals on the internet who specifically target people of a certain age range?
Is that sarcasm?
I wasn't being sarcastic. (Sometimes I work things weirdly, so I'm sorry if it sounds like I was.)
What's Sarcasm?
-ShadowOfTheFuture-
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

ScratchDiogoh wrote:

-ShadowOfTheFuture- wrote:

TheRealNetherBefore wrote:

-ShadowOfTheFuture- wrote:

Dunno, maybe it's because there are criminals on the internet who specifically target people of a certain age range?
Is that sarcasm?
I wasn't being sarcastic. (Sometimes I work things weirdly, so I'm sorry if it sounds like I was.)
What's Sarcasm?
It's when you say something, but you deliberately phrase it a certain way or use a particular tone that shows that you're conveying a different meaning, generally negative.

Google definition: the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

</offtopic>

Last edited by -ShadowOfTheFuture- (May 30, 2018 20:20:40)

KJRYoshi07
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

I don't think age is a problem, more of birthdate. It could help people find you by your birthday? (I don't have a facebook account, it's illegal to have one if you are under 13 in Australia)
wWSunPandaWw
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why is sharing your age and birthday on Scratch considered Personal Information?

KJRYoshi07 wrote:

I don't think age is a problem, more of birthdate. It could help people find you by your birthday? (I don't have a facebook account, it's illegal to have one if you are under 13 in Australia)
But I'm not revealing my full name–even if I did have a Facebook you couldn't find me just by me saying my birthday.

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