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May 23, 2007

internet

Kids are stealing less stuff online? It looks like it

Posted May. 23, ’07, 11:45 AM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Internet

piracychart.jpg

A study by Harris Interactive (released by the Business Software Alliance) indicates that young people are downloading less illegal content than three years ago: in 2004, 60% of kids and teens aged 8-18 said they stole audio, video or software on the Internet, while only 36% admit doing it now.

While this seems like good news for content creators, I’d question how many kids openly admit in an online survey that they’re engaging in illegal activity, especially with RIAA lawsuit horror stories going around.

Whether the survey is accurate or not, it finds that the primary reason for not downloading illegal files is the possibility of unintentionally getting a virus instead of that new Hilary Duff single — I don’t know about you, but I’d take the virus anytime. Fear of lawsuits came in second, while “getting in trouble with parents” also was a factor (it increased from 40% to 48% between 2004 and 2007). Understandably, parent supervision seems to play a pretty big role in kids’ online activities.

If you break down the downloaded content, music still takes home the prize, with 30% of the participants stealing tunes, down from 53% percent in 2004. Movies and software are only illegally acquired by 8 and 11%, respectively. As I said before, I suspect these numbers are lower than reality, but it does seem like there’s a downward trend. Perhaps the success of the iTunes store has something to do with it? Hopefully, the online store’s DRM-free tracks will accelerate the tendency.

[via Macworld]


6 Comments

George said:

Of course, it could just mean that due to natural aging, the average age of online music downloaders has increased to whatever the next age bracket would be.

May 23, 2007 1:37 PM
Fletcher said:

The devil is in the details of this kind of survey. In the actual release it claims to measure how many people have downloaded "music without paying for it".

This however is not necessarily illegal. For example, I have downloaded many Podcasts of performances and sample tracks directly from bands which are perfectly legal, but I did not pay for them. Even the single of the week from iTunes falls into this category.

The actual release does not make it clear whether any effort was made to distinguish legal downloads from illegal downloads.

May 23, 2007 2:20 PM
Paul said:

Perhaps the the RIAA lawsuits have something to do with it?

May 23, 2007 2:46 PM
Jack said:

In other news Jack interactive speculates that teens between the ages of 8 and 18 are more likely to hang up on surveyers from Harris interactive without answereing any questions. Since Harris Interactive does not account for self selection bias, and states as much in their press release, there can be no level of confidence assigned as to whether the probabilities stated have any relevance to the actual U.S. population.
Note: See Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error, James J. Heckman
Econometrica, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan.,1979), pp. 153-161
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0012-9682%28197901%2947%3A1%3C153%3ASSBAAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J&origin=crossref

May 23, 2007 3:31 PM
Long said:

To follow up on what George said, we would probably see an increase in the downloading of illegal content in the next age bracket.

Also, kids these days are born into a technological world that is already sort of established, unlike 10 years ago when every single thing related to technology was new and everybody was curious about it.

These days, kids probably get their music from their parents who are the ones who download illegally.

May 23, 2007 7:12 PM
Dave-O said:

I know that file sharing became a campus issue at my school (the IT admins started blocking it and instructing students that it was against school policy) in 1999. So that's, let see, 8 years ago. I think the likely answer is that the parents of the kids in the sample were more informed. Consequently they are overseeing their kids behavior and instructing them in the risks and rules. After all, there was plenty of news about lawsuits in '04.

May 23, 2007 8:39 PM

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