A recent survey carried out by the European Commission has found that children across Europe have a good knowledge of illegal downloading, but don’t view the legal implications as a major risk.
37 European Union countries, Norway, and Iceland took part in the survey, which concentrated on the activities of 9-14 year olds. It found the major online activities in this age group were communication through e-mail and instant messaging, playing games, and surfing the Internet. More specifically, the boys ages 9-10 used the Internet mainly for research on school work, boys older than that were into games and music downloads, and the girls 12-14 stay online the longest and concentrate mainly on social networking.
When it comes to downloading illegal files, many of the children gave excuses or questioned the validity of facts relating to what illegal downloads promoted. Some of the top answers were:
- Illegal downloads were done by their parents giving some form of validation to doing it themselves
- It is only done for personal and private use
- Assumption that the websites offering the downloads gives money to the artists
- The loss of revenue to artists was questionable
- DVDs and CDs are too expensive
Most of the children who took part also said they fully intended on continuing to download files off the Internet. They were also well aware of the risks, and interestingly, downloading a virus was seen as a much higher risk than any form of legal action being taken against them. Other risks known to most respondents were online scams, cyber-bullying, and the danger of talking to strangers.
Speaking of the survey results, EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said:
It is encouraging to see Europe’s youth embrace digital technologies so confidently… At the same time, these survey results underline Europe’s need for proactive online media education. We must also continue to raise awareness about the opportunities and risks of new media, especially among parents.
Read more at The Hollywood Reporter.
When I was growing up, the Internet was just getting going and didn’t really start to take off as a mainstream service until I was in my mid-teens. I have seen the advent of illegal downloads and pirated software and have read all the news about it. I am fully aware of what piracy apparently does to industries such as music and film regardless of whether I agree with all or some of it.
Things are very different for children growing up today, though. A 12-year-old will not be aware of how piracy has progressed online and become a major headache for the big media corporations. He or she surfs the web, finds some files he or she wants and downloads them. The kid may have heard about the legal issues, but he or she cares more about getting the music or film he or she wants.
It’s interesting that children know more about viruses, online scams, and not talking to strangers. I would guess this is because their parents have warned them about it so as not to cause problems with “Dad’s computer” or get into danger by talking with a stranger. I don’t think illegal downloads are as high on the parent-child conversation list as these other more apparent threats.
Education is the only way to make children aware of the problems piracy causes. Whether this is enough to stop them downloading illegal files is questionable.