May 27, 2007
by James Harmening
Parents unite! We can make a difference in our kids lives. There is a new survey out that shows if we take a stand, we will have an impact on our kids. The two studies are from the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org).
The first encouraging part of the study was that illegal software is being downloaded less. “There was a decrease in the percentage of kids downloading software without paying for it; 11 percent reported illegal downloading in 2007, down from 14 percent in 2006, and in 2004 at 22 percent,” the study found.
That is great news for software writers and publishers. I think there are a few reasons for this. First, you can get quality software for free. There are anti-virus programs (like AVG—www.grisoft.com) that work, and even the big guys—Norton (www.norton.com) and McAfee (www.mcafee.com) give out free cleaners if you have a recent infection.
One of my favorites is Panda Anti-virus (www.pandasoftware.com) that has a Web-based anti-virus scanner. They offer a limited, yet functional version for free and then if you like it, I recommend purchasing the full version to get all of the features.
There is another phenomenon sweeping the Internet: Open Source software that is available for free. Microsoft has thrown a monkey wrench into the Open Source community by claiming patent infringement, so this will be an interesting three years for Open Source. There are some good Open Source programs, but be careful about which ones you use.
The second encouraging part is that the studies have shown a decrease in pirated music and video. “In 2007, 30 percent of youth admitted to downloading music without paying, compared to 32 percent in 2006 and 53 percent in 2004; 8 percent admitted to downloading movies without paying in 2007, down from 10 percent in 2006 admitting downloading without paying, and 17 percent reporting so in 2004,” the report said.
My favorite finding is, “This study indicates that parents have a strong influence on how their children will make decisions about appropriate Internet behavior.”
“Fortunately, the survey found that more than half of the students have been warned by their parents about dangerous, illegal online behaviors. Imposing rules and ensuring your children abide by them may be an old-fashioned concept for cyberspace, but it works.”
In addition to a parent warning their children, there are two other reasons why I believe the trend is down. First, the people who have pirated the music and movies have gotten burned by spyware or bad viruses.
The second reason is that there has been lots of publicity about people getting caught and having to pay multi-thousand dollar fines.
The weird thing about many of these cases, is that the “collectors” who get caught couldn’t possibly listen to all the music on their computers. I think kids are getting smarter now, and so are parents. We need to encourage our teachers, coaches and religious leaders to bring the message to the kids as well. It is not OK to download music and software.