According to a new study from the UK-based security company GSS, about 50 percent of all UK children use file sharing networks to trade unauthorized music, and know that what they are doing is illegal.
Says the report: “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.”
Making the survey more interesting is the fact that GSS is not a trade group related to the RIAA or any other anti-piracy outfit. They are a security firm which specialized in corporate IT security and the firm believes that music sharing kids are a new danger for security.
Backing that statement up, GSS says that 20 percent of the kids asked admitted to accidentally downloading viruses from their P2P network of choice. Since viruses spread so easily, GSS says all it takes is one parent and an email account or a flash drive to possibly bring the virus to the workplace.
Read more [AFTERDAWN]