Digital natives display confusion about rights and wrongs of online piracy

Attitudes of ‘digital natives’ – 15-24 year-olds – towards the illicit consumption of online content differ significantly according to which age sub-group they belong to, according to a study of consumption habits by the Hadopi, the commission set up to combat online piracy in France.

According to the study 15-18 year-olds are the most concerned about respecting the rights of authors and are likely to feel guilty about downloading content illicitly, while 19-21 year-olds are the least respecting of rights when consuming online content. Older digital natives – 22-24 year-olds – are split in their attitudes, according to the survey.

Digital natives typically stream series, user generated content and music videos from a mix of legal and illicit sources, while being more likely to download films and music from illicit sites. They are likely to view streaming inherently as a ‘legitimate’ activity, while viewing the putting online of works to share with others as inherently more serious.