Parenting blogger Harriet Shearsmith joins Internet Matters call to parents to get clued up on risks of digital piracy
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The internet is full of great content for children and young people. However, streaming or downloading from illegal sites, also known as digital piracy, can expose them to some hidden horrors such as age-inappropriate content, disturbing pop-ups and cyber threats.
Your family’s devices may end up with viruses and you could fall victim to fraud. Spotting the risks isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created this information hub to help you protect your family from the dangers of digital piracy.
The internet is full of great content for children and young people. However, streaming or downloading from illegal sites, also known as digital piracy, can expose them to some hidden horrors such as age-inappropriate content, disturbing pop-ups and cyber threats.
Your family’s devices may end up with viruses and you could fall victim to fraud. Spotting the risks isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created this information hub to help you protect your family from the dangers of digital piracy.
When asked, a group of survey respondents who infringed and illegally streamed claimed they had experienced these hidden horrors:
There are no parental controls with pirated content and explicit adverts may appear anytime.
Many of these illegitimate sites can install viruses onto your family’s devices. These viruses, also known as malware or malicious software, can spy on your digital activity, lock your device until a ransom is paid or give hackers access to your device.
Criminals use illegal streams, sites and downloads to try and hack into devices and obtain your private passwords.
*Source: From a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents from Dynata, the world’s largest first-party data and insights platform, September 2020.
Stay with the legitimate, trusted services that you know, online and on your TV.
Apply parental controls to devices that are connected to the internet. Even your TV should let you restrict access to internet browsing.
Work with your child and agree which sites and apps are best for them to use. You can review them as they get older and discuss anything that upsets them.
Watch the following videos to learn more about parents concerns on this issue.
Malware can control your device and access its camera. That's really scary isn't it. Yeah. I'm
really scared to download anything that I don't already know is fully legit. In terms of piracy
there's nothing free. I know as a parent I need to do more when it comes to this topic.
We'll chat to the kids, just because it's not good and it's illegal. Yeah.
in three people using illegal streaming
sites were exposed to age
inappropriate content that's scary this
is very scary that could be anything
it's not just about pornography it could
be anything that they're not supposed to
see
that's why we are so adamant
about the right kind of sites i don't
like this
i think we need to talk to the kids yeah
share your private details with criminals. Do they? It can steal all your information, it can
steal all your data and steal your bank account details. Not that we have much for them to get.
It's free so that they can get your information. When you go into
those kind of sites you can't guarantee the security.
Read a child’s experience of watching pirated content.
Use the following resources to help protect children and young people from the risks associated with digital piracy and help them make safer choices online.
