Welcome to the community.
You can never be 100% safe from bans. However, the more present you are the more you do lower risk simply because you'll be there to keep it from being stupid in a no stupid zone. I monitor my bots nearly all the time. I used to even pause them when I went to the bathroom! Never bot on any account you aren't emotionally prepared to lose. I started on a Vanilla only beat up box I got off eBay for $5. Once I had a strong feel for how the bot behaved, it could and could not do, and which profiles I could count on I could then make an educated decision about whether or not to risk my beloved accounts. I now bot to some degree or another on all of my accounts. If you go this route make sure that you don't connect the practice account with your others in any way otherwise the shield provided may be pierced.
Also its not just a matter of presence that makes the difference, some botting behavior is simply riskier than others. The more you do to make the bot appear human the safer you are and this includes playtime and activity type. No human player gathers herbs in a single zone for 6+hours without a bathroom break. (OK, maybe I did when I had the flu but that's really unusual.) The more comfortable you get with the tools available, including some really amazing community created extensions, the more you'll be able to customize and improve your own botting experience.