Let's talk the risks of digital piracy with Internet Matters - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

When you can’t access the TV shows or films you’d like to watch it can be tempting to illegally stream them online - but doing so could introduce your family to a dark corner of the web involving viruses, disturbing pop-ups and unexpected pornographic content. Though Digital online piracy is often recognised through dodgy websites and Kodi boxes, it can also occur through any number of apps on mobiles or tablets. Internet Matters would like to hear your thoughts on digital piracy and the associated risks for your children, and how you would speak to your children about digital piracy.

Here’s what Carolyn Bunting, CEO of Internet Matters has to say: “We’re concerned that millions of parents don’t realise the amount of inappropriate, even pornographic, content children can find or stumble upon unexpectedly when watching TV and video content that is streamed illegally online. This issue has been growing for some time and we want to try and address the problem and highlight the risks parents are unknowingly taking when their children use open source media players, like Kodi boxes, to stream content illegally.”

Perhaps you’re completely in the dark about digital piracy? Perhaps you think the risks are worth it? Are you concerned about your child accidentally or even intentionally accessing illegal or even inappropriate content while watching cartoons, kids shows and films through open source media players? We’re interested in getting your thoughts about digital piracy and any tips you have for other parents speaking to their children about it so that they understand the risks.

All who post below will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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I constantly worry about my DC'S being online. I hate how you get some very sick individuals posting, for example Peppa Pig video's on YouTube showing some very gruesome and upsetting things for youngsters to see, despite all the parent controls etc which don't work. I don't let my little boy on there now.

I’ll also go against the grain and say I constantly stream from illegal sites.
We pay a fortune for Sky - but cannot watch things at the same time as the USA? We also have prime - but again, most of the things I actually want to watch are only available by purchasing it above what we already pay? We had Netflix - I would tweak my VPN and get access to the better, USA version. But they cottoned on to that one!

I watch it all on my iPad. Yes, I’ll occasionally get a porn pop up, but I just close the window. As it’s an iPad, it’s a lot more secure and I’m not stupid enough to enter credit card details. My children do not have access to my iPad, so they will not see it.
As for cinema movies - I’ll stream them too! Sod spending £50 on a complete trip to the cinema!

We have kids YouTube on their iPads - every single app they want has to be approved by me. In app purchases are disabled. They have kids accounts on the house PC - again restricted and they can’t do anything without our knowing.

I think parents need to take responsibility. If they are downloading an app, which gives access then they surely must know this isn’t legal and therefor the app doesn’t really care about content - they want as many users as possible.

There are always going to be streaming sites and way around paying for content.

My DS is too untestricted in his watching and I do worry that he will stream from somewhere dodgy and we will get viruses and data theft. I think he is fairly canny, for a 11 year old, but he is also desperate for a bargain. It is a wicked world out there on the web. Mind you, even the legit stuff bombards you with a shed load of crap.

Agree tv rights need to be looked at - you can't be surprised that if it's hard to access content legally then people will chose to access it illegally.

And yes, cinema trips are too expensive.

My daughter is too young at the moment I think but obviously in future we will need to talk about it and I'd hope school would too. When I was little it was advertised on every video with the video piracy is a crime ad - it seems to have moved on from copy videos a lot now to basically being online. I'd be worried that if kids watched something that it wouldn't be what was expected, the internet is both great and awful. I think the cost of things drives people to watch things online though

I do have concerns about digital piracy, but as it seems relatively easy to download movies which have not been released yet, and to live-stream pay to view boxing and football matches, the issues I have is - have one release date for movies, instead of the US having one date and the UK being months behind, and maybe reducing the cost of the pay to view, so it is more accessible to all. I feel that where there is the capability to hack and download and stream illegally it will always happen. The responsibility is with the parent, and maybe if ISP's can add a setting to the broadband to prevent this happening it may help the 'cause'.

I'll be honest here and say the flood gates have opened, and piracy will not be tackled by parents taking action. It's often parents themselves actively seeking to pirate.

We have used kodi- as others have said , I can't access American shows that won't be screened here without it.

Everyone I know has used pirates in some way or another- I'm old enough to remember people bragging that they had pirate videos

I think that my learning the risks, and ensuring safety / awareness for myself means that the dc will also learn that.

Also- the ease of which dark material is accessed on the internet and the dangers around it , I don't think that piracy is the leading hand into that stuff. Unfortunately with social media as is, I think there are far greater risks around that aspect of children's computer use.

I think when you stream the quality is so poor being the picture and the sound that it isn't even worth doing you can pick dvd's up quite cheaply and movies seemed to be released so much more quicker now that you don't have to wait as long for it to come out on dvd. I do think however if cinema prices weren't as expensive as they are then you would get less pirating because people wouldn't mind paying to see the film.

I think even youtube is an awful one for children even if you try to set up their tablet with parental controls you get all sorts of not appropriate suggested material that your child can easily click on so much so I have deleted the app off of my daughters tablet.

I am aware of the dangers and glad that their are some parental controls in place but like said I do think even with these in place they can still see things that they shouldn't x

We have had tentative conversations about this topic with our two boys, they are still quite young and don't yet understand it fully. We have asked them to always check with us before downloading or watching anything online. Due to their ages, we currently use parental controls on their devices. More conversations on the topic will follow as they become more mature.

I don't partake in this but I know a lot of families that do. It scares me enough that there are so many risks to children through the internet, without having an additional threat exposed to them. Do children really need to watch the very latest films? Can we not teach them patience and to wait until they are available legally? It is teaching children to be ignorant of copyright and digital piracy and there is a danger they will grow up to believe this as being commonplace and acceptable.

I watch some TV documentaries on fairly obscure subjects that wouldn't get made at all if it wasn't for the BBC licence fee helping get things like this made rather than everything being driven by advertising and other revenue which can push everything to become more mainstream and aiming for popularity rather than other qualities!

The point of this is that it makes you appreciate that paying for something properly is how these things get made and ensures the long term future of your viewing pleasure and variety and quality of programs and not just BBC!

my son is still quiet young but i make sure all the age restrictions are on the apps he uses. I think they should teach about online privacy in schools when they get old enough. x

I find it much easier than when I was a teen to legally stream digital data due to on demand programming which is now available at affordable prices such as Netflix (although Spotify I find extortionate for a single user). However when I visit inlaws (developing country) virtually most of their digital data is illegally downloaded due to the western prices applied to these items making them unattainable, even the dvds in the supermarkets are pirate copies. This makes it very difficult for my DC to understand - I guess if you can afford it then you pay, but why should these items be only for the western world?

i think schools should address this issue and a frank conversation with children

I'm a bit in the dark, tbh, as I always pay for stuff.. I think it would be good to know more as my kids get older, as I do know they'll be accessing things beyond my control. But, as a teacher, there is simply no space in our already overstretched curriculum to teach it- we, parents need help! I'd like to know more..

As a deaf person who needs subtitles. I have to download shows as sky and virgin tv are useless at subtitles for many of their own shows or on demand shows. I think others pirate due to rights to shows e.g. only on sky which is ridiculous price but kids will talk about good shows and want to watch them.

I have to say, I was pretty oblivious to the risks.

I think there are much more things to be worried about online than digital priacy

In my opinion, the vast majority of people don’t want to pirate content, but it’s difficult for them to access it legally and pay for it. Delays in broadcasts between countries is a particular problem, or the fact that people can’t afford to sign up to Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services at once.

Find an easily accessible and affordable way for people to acess content legally and most would take it. I’ve never used a streaming site but discussing this issue with friends recently they told me that every torrent and streaming site is chock full of porn advertising so it’s definitely something I want to steer my kids away from (far more concerned about porn than about piracy to be honest).

make sure you as parents have installed all the firewalls and antivirus software that can really help stop the infected ones.not all but it does scan most and catch them.
so yes that still leaves some services open and they will still use them as the amount of shows rigths we sometimes have here in the uk or the prie and subcrition crap you often need I think really needs dealing with.
try to tell them the basics.dont give out personal details.no bank cards.keep passwords safe.different for each platform
don't give the same passwords for accounts you need kept private
teach them how to hover over an address.
teach them never to open links in emails before coming to us.
how to report search rogue sites.
use your gutif something is opening up many links or bring up tabs after tab we class those as really iffy and close immediately.
tell us about anything
don't be ashamed or guilty.anything that goes on we need to know so we can sort it together
let them be open with you not scared we will treat them like they set off a Korean bomb to our home which ive seen some dads do!

It reminds me of the adverts you used to get on DVDs. My children are still too young but I will talk to them when the time comes.

Schools cover copyright and piracy but when children then say they watch things at home that you know are only available illegally, such as new movies, I think we need to make parents take more responsibility.
I also think we should have the same viewing opportunities as the US. I had to wait ages for The Handmaid's Tale, for example, when I could have streamed it.

I hadn't really thought about the safety aspect of this issue, only the ethical - it's something I need to think about. My son is only small still, so I have control over what he watches, but as he gets older I know that safety online is a big issue we have to discuss, and this is another aspect of that. I'd like to see more accessible information on this to help with that discussion.

We got a virus years ago from XP watching football through dodgy sites. I have no interest whatsoever in pirated films. There is so much available to watch on the Channels/subscriptions we have it's not been relevant yet.

But as dc get a bit older I will absolutely talk to them about it. I would be very concerned about them having porn pop ups etc. There is so much I detest about online life. We all tiptoe around, trying to avoid seeing images of women being raped for men's pleasure. Priority is given to men so they can access all this on demand and pornographers can make fortunes. It's twisted and fucked up.