Risks of using p2p on the family computer

• Experts say that children who surf p2p networks like Limewire and eDonkey are at risk of wrecking the family computer, importing fatal viruses or porn and leaking confidential household information on to the internet

• In the US, the FBI is giving presentations to high school children to get them to change their ways. They have evidence that people deliberately manipulate the services by sending offensive material to children under file names of new release music or film that will appeal to them

• The FBI has also raised an even more drastic safety issue - an internet "worm" that people use to get into a users' computer by the backdoor, turn on their webcam and spy on them in their own bedroom or computer room

• Webcam intrusion has been encountered by the authorities in other countries. In 2005, Spanish police arrested a man suspected of distributing on p2p networks a virus capable of spying on people through their Webcams. The computer programmer from Madrid had written the virus and also stolen online bank passwords. The Spanish Civil Guard said the malicious program was disguised as a music or picture file

• Worries about computer viruses have spread around the world. Independent third party research shows:
• • In the US 20% of those who switched from illegal to legal music online cited fear of viruses as their main worry - compared with 25% citing fear of legal action (NPD, June 06)
  • In the UK, 59% of those intending to cutback or stop illegal file-sharing cited fear of viruses as a major reason for this - compared to 42% who said fear of legal action was driving their behaviour (EMR, September 2006)
  • In Japan, 46% of those who stopped using p2p cited fear of viruses as their major reason for giving up compared to 26% who mentioned fear of violating copyright law (RIAJ, August 2006)
  • In Poland, 25% of those not using p2p mentioned concern over security as an issue, compared with 20% who mentioned legal action (ZPAV, July 2006)

• Childnet International, the internet children's safety charity, recommends software from the music industry that helps people find out whether there are p2p programmes installed on their computer. Named Digital File Check, it helps you delete the programmes if you want to and stops you from sharing files from your computer. DFC can be downloaded at Childnet's information website http://www.childnet-int.org/sorted/ or at the music educational website http://www.pro-music.org/.

• The vast majority of computer viruses are carried by ordinary e-mailing between people's computers. A report released in September 2006 by anti-virus software maker Symantics showed that one in every 120 emails sent carries a virus. BUT, unlike P2P networks, e-mail is usually very well protected by firewalls and does not leave your computer open to millions of other internet users

• The Symantics report also showed that the problem of viruses carried on p2p is getting worse. It says 23% of all virus infections were carried by p2p networks in the first half of 2006, up from 14% in the previous six-month period