Scratch's mission is to allow young learners around the world to express their ideas creatively through coding for free. We're also committed to keeping the online community safe, inclusive, and supportive. One vision early developers of Scratch had was to allow people to bring themselves into Scratch projects as a fun and exciting way to feel they were a part of their stories, animations, and games. To support this vision, a feature was created which allowed people to create a sprite costume or backdrop using a picture taken from their computer's camera.

While this vision and feature do promote creative expression, a feature which was designed to encourage people to share pictures of themselves does not meet our privacy standards. In response to this, we have removed the feature which created a costume or backdrop from the camera. We're constantly reviewing our features, policies, and resources to ensure that Scratch remains a vibrant community where Scratchers can express themselves creatively in a safe and welcoming environment. This is just one step we're taking in our ongoing privacy and safety efforts.