Microsoft: your children are pirates and proud of it!

Davey Winder
Monday, 21 July 2008 20:00

Business IT - Networking

Michala Wardell is the Head of Anti-Piracy at Microsoft in the UK, and she urges parents to be taking action now in order to stamp out the child piracy problem. "File sharing is a great technology, but parents should make sure that their children are doing it legally" she says, adding "Parents need to convince their kids to use their technical abilities wisely, so they don't put themselves or their families at risk."

Wardell goes on to argue that the younger generation needs to be street-smart as well as tech-savvy, but concedes that striking a sensible balance is important here. "I would encourage parents to be aware of what their kids are doing without clamping down on their computer use" she says, ending on a slightly more sinister note by saying that "I would also stress that without fully understanding the risks of running illegal computer programs, kids could lose more than just their homework."

Which is all well and good, but many of those parents just do not have the same technical fluency when it comes to social networking, file sharing or the online world in general. Not only do they not understand how easy it is to pop online and do the modern day equivalent of copying an ABBA cassette tape, but they have no concept of the inherent dangers involved in doing do either. Dangers from both malware and legal sides of the piracy equation.

Education certainly seems at the forefront of music industry representative Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) which is committed to tackling illegal music downloading. "If you're used to taking something for free" Taylor says "you're bound to think the paid-for version is too expensive, whatever price you're asked to pay."

So what does Taylor suggest needs to be done to solve the child piracy problem in the UK? Read on to find out...

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