Scratch was conceived and designed through collaborative National Science Foundation grants awarded to Mitchel Resnick and Yasmin Kafai.

[11] Scratch is developed by the MIT Media Lab and has been translated into 70+ languages, being used in most parts of the world.

Scratch is taught and used in after-school centers, schools, and colleges, as well as other public knowledge institutions.

Like scratching, the website lets users mix together different media (including graphics, sound, and other programs) in creative ways by creating and "remixing" projects, like video games, animations, music, and simulations.

The Costumes tab allows users to change the look of the sprite with a vector and bitmap editor in order to create various effects, including animation.

[15] The table below shows the categories of the programming blocks: An offline "Desktop Editor" for Scratch 3.0 is available for Microsoft Windows 10 and above in the Microsoft Store, Apple's macOS, ChromeOS, and Android;[16] this allows the creation and playing of Scratch programs offline.

Experimental features currently under development include: Scratch is used in many different settings: schools, museums, libraries, community centers, and homes.

Using Scratch allows young people to understand the logic of programming and how to creatively build and collaborate.

[25][26] In higher education, Scratch is used in the first week of Harvard University's CS50 introductory computer science course.

Additionally, to encourage the creation and sharing amongst users, the website frequently establishes "Scratch Design Studio" challenges.

[31] The MIT Scratch Team works to ensure that this community maintains a friendly and respectful environment for all people.

Some restrictions are imposed onto New Scratcher accounts, including the inability to use cloud data and a minimum 30 second cooldown period between posting comments.

[36] After a period of time of interacting and creating projects, an account will be eligible to gain the Scratcher role.

[39] In August 2020, GreatFire announced that the Chinese government had blocked access to the Scratch website.

[40][citation needed] The outlet cited the fact that Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan were listed as countries on the website.

[40][41] They also contain Abkhazia, Somaliland, South Ossetia, and Faroe Islands are locations, but they only seem to be seen in Scratch Statistics on the Scratchers Worldwide section, and nobody has made an account in these countries.

At these gatherings, Scratch Educators learn from each other and share ideas and strategies that support computational creativity.

Community members are encouraged to host an event on or around this day, large or small, that celebrates Scratch.

In the early 2000s, the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten group (LLK) was developing visual programming languages targeted towards children.

[50] In 2003, Mitchel Resnick, Yasmin Kafai, and John Maeda were awarded a National Science Foundation grant for the development of a new programming environment for children to express themselves with code.

[11] The LLK, led by Mitchel Resnick, in partnership with Yasmin Kafai's team at UCLA worked closely with Computer Clubhouses in Boston and Los Angeles to develop Scratch, grounding its design in the practices and social dynamics of these after-school youth centers.

[21] Scratch was developed based on ongoing interaction with youth and staff at Computer Clubhouses.

The use of Scratch at Computer Clubhouses served as a model for other after-school centers demonstrating how informal learning settings can support the development of technological fluency.

[63] On 28 June 2023,[64] the header and links on the Scratch Website changed from blue to purple, and new optional high-contrast block colors were introduced, to make the site easier for colorblind people to read and use.

(previously "BYOB") was developed by Jens Mönig[84][85] with documentation provided by Brian Harvey[86][87] from University of California, Berkeley and has been used to teach "The Beauty and Joy of Computing" introductory course in CS for non-CS-major students.

Although heavily inspired by Scratch and co-led by Mitch Resnick, it is nonetheless a complete rewrite designed for younger children—targeting ages 5 through 7.

[90] Due to the open source nature of Scratch, numerous forks and browser extensions have been created by the community that aim to improve or modify the user experience.

[96] Although the intention for Scratch 3.0 was to allow unofficial JavaScript extensions to be developed by users, it was abandoned due to moderation risks.