It’s likely that you, as a parent, have never even heard of P2P networking. On the other hand, you probably have P2P file sharing software on your computer, programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus or BitTorrent.
P2P (or Peer to Peer) software is designed to share files between computers and is most commonly used to download and share songs. In and of itself, it’s harmless. However, there definitely are concerns you, as a parent, should be aware of.
One is simply the legality of the sharing that’s being done. For example, there have been many lawsuits filed against individuals because of illegal downloads of copyrighted material, particularly music and movies. Even if your child is a minor doesn’t mean that you, as their parent, are not legally vulnerable.
There have been thousands of lawsuits and expensive settlements, so make sure you have set strong guidelines with your children about what can and cannot be downloaded.
