New Study: Half of Kids in UK Are Sharing Files Online

In an earlier post this week we reported about the UK’s urge towards a global plan to fight online piracy and revealed the goal of reducing it by 70-80%. This may be quite a challenge as a new research by Security Company GSS (based in UK) shows that 50% of British kids share songs they love using p2p file sharing networks on regular basis. The main concern seems to be the fact that these kids know very well the difference between downloading files from legal services and getting from sources

"When questioned about the legalities of downloading music, nearly all of the children understood that there were legal and illegal methods that could be used to download music. Over half admitted to using P2P software to download music illegally rather than using programs such as iTunes."

Still, let’s be a little patient with reacting – some things are to be considered here: studies such as this come in pretty useful sometimes for the companies that conducted them since they offer IT security services for corporate customers. In this case GSS suggests that youngsters represent a high threat for the corporate network security through the potential of virus spreading they create.

"An organisation's security is only as strong as its weakest link, and the home PC may be a huge threat to an organisation's data," the security company says but what about the kids who own their own computer, huh?