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Online Guide
- Talking to Your Children About Downloading Music – A Parent's Guide
- First, Figure Out What Your Kids Are Doing Online
- What to Expect and How to Address the Issue
- Explaining the Underlying Reasoning to Your Kids
- Understanding Music and the Internet
- What should you do if you receive a letter or subpoena from the RIAA?
- So, what can you do to stay on the right side of the law and off the RIAA's subpoena list?
- And Now for the Really Boring Stuff…the Law
- Criminal Copyright Infringement and Children
- A message from Jennifer, age 14, New Jersey
- Ask Parry! Excerpt
- Frequently Asked Questions
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You are here: Home > Law > Copyrights > Talking to Your Children About Downloading Music – A Parent’s Guide > What to Expect and How to Address the Issue
What to Expect and How to Address the Issue
Expect some hard questions. Also expect some questions you won’t
be able to answer. If they ask why the law is the way it is, most lawyers
couldn’t answer that one. They would blame it on the legislators,
who would in turn blame it on the lawyers. 
It’s a good time to resort to the tried-and-true response our parents
and grandparents before them used – “Because Congress says
so!”
Now you’re ready for the more serious discussions. Make sure you know what you will say before you start the discussion. From your perspective, what’s right, what’s wrong and does it make a difference if no one knows you are doing something wrong? Be prepared to deal with the fact that you may have been downloading music as well.
Recently we were speaking to a group of scouts who seemed shocked to
learn that downloading music and videos is illegal. One young scout piped
up, explaining that her dad always downloads the latest Disney video for
her to watch. She couldn’t believe that her father had committed
a crime in doing so. She could barely contain herself, waiting until the
meeting was over so she could confront him. The younger the child the
more shocked they will be to discover that you have been breaking the
law. Be prepared to answer sticky questions here. Perhaps explaining that
no one really understood it was illegal until recently is a good way out.
(If all else fails, blame it on the lawyers. )
And check to see if a subpoena has already been issued for you or your kids. (Visit www.eff.org for their subpoena search page. Are you going to set different rules for your children than you are setting for yourself? Even if you stop your children, are you going to risk continuing to download music yourself, hoping you won’t get caught? If so, are you going to be open about this choice, or try to hide it? (It’s unlikely your kids won’t discover the P2P software application on your computer and the contents of your shared folder.)
Decide ahead of time what your rules and choices will be. Then make sure that you have solutions available. Will the rule be no more music downloads, period? Or will the kids be given the opportunity to download music from pay sites? What about giving them access to Amazon to buy CDs online? Or agreeing to visit the local music stores once in awhile? Or borrow their friend’s CD to listen to. Find some good streaming sites online and Internet radio sites that would allow the kids to listen without having to download the music. And decide whether you will use software to try to enforce your rules, or whether you will trust your children to follow them.