Help prevent online piracy at home
Teach your kids not to illegally download or share movies, music, and software
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Online piracy is when someone illegally copies and shares copyrighted materials for business or personal use. This includes when someone downloads music, movies, games, or software without the permission of the copyright owner or when you share music, movies, games, and software copies that you own.
If your kids pirate digital files, you could be subject to steep fines or other penalties, and this practice can expose your computer to viruses, spyware, and other unwanted software.
Here are four ways to help you prevent your kids from downloading illegally.
On This Page
 | 1. Warn your children about the risks |
| 2. Supervise your child's activities on the computer |
| 3. Give your child a limited user account |
| 4. Show your children how to download legally |
1. Warn your children about the risks
Piracy is theft, plain and simple. The sooner your children understand this, the better. As you probably already know, sometimes simply telling a child that something is wrong is not enough. It may help to discuss the consequences.
Here are some of the penalties you or your children could be subject to if they illegally download music:
| • | Under U.S. copyright law, you could be fined up to $30,000 (this fine can vary by country). |
| • | Your home computer and associated files and discs could be confiscated. |
| • | Your child could expose your computer to viruses. |
| • | You child could expose your computer to spyware or other unwanted software. |
2. Supervise your child's activities on the computer
Once you've explained the risks of piracy to your children, you might still want to observe their activity. Here are a couple tips that can help:
| • | Keep the computer in a central room in your house. Specify certain times your child can and cannot use the computer and make sure they understand which activities are acceptable and which are not. |
| • | Although it's not intended as a substitute for parental involvement, a Web service that allows you to track your child's online activities can help you monitor what they do online. If you subscribe to MSN Premium, you can use Parental Controls which allow you to block certain sites from your children, and you can receive a weekly report of what sites they've visited on the Web. |
Tip: Read 10 things you can teach kids to improve their Internet safety to learn more ways to help keep your kids safe when they go online.
3. Give your child a limited user account
Windows XP allows you to create multiple user accounts for your computer. Each user can log on separately and has a unique profile with his or her own Desktop and My Documents folder. As a parent, you can give yourself an Administrator account, which allows you full control over the computer, and give your children Limited User accounts, which have restricted controls to help kids stay out of trouble.
4. Show your children how to download legally
There are many different places on the Web where you and your children can download software, movies, games, and music for free or for a low price. For example, MSN Music offers more than 1 million tracks from major music labels as well as independent, new, and undiscovered artists. Consider an allowance for music, games, or other software so your children won't be tempted to download illegally.
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