DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR KIDS ARE?

Naturally, the BPI are frothing like horses' hooves at the launch of an international campaign to "alert" parents to the dangers of filesharing, because it gives them something else to do to justify their existence. This time, it's printing up leaflets as its contribution to the international re-education campaign.

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said, "We are committed to working with parents to make them aware of the dangers of illegal downloading. There has already been huge publicity about this issue, but we are committed to doing even more to get the message across: unauthorised filesharing is illegal and could land you or your child in court."

But could it? Is it actually possible for the BPI to take a minor to court for filesharing? And would the CPS bring a prosecution against a kid for filesharing? It seems unlikely; it's equally debatable as to if a parent can be held responsible for their children's downloading - but, of course, the major labels put so much pressure on their marks none of this has ever come to court to actually be tested.

There's something a bit distasteful about the implications of much of the campaign, too:

Emma Pike, Director General of British Music Rights said: “It is fantastic that children are learning to access music in so many new and diverse ways. We are keen for young people to be creative and enterprising with the music they love and the music they create, but it is vital that they do this in a safe and legitimate environment. Parents have a role to play in helping their children to use the internet safely and we would urge them to ensure they understand what their children are doing. We welcome the Childnet leaflet which we hope will highlight any negative pitfalls which might arise through internet use".

Is it just us being over-senstive, or does this whole campaign seem to be trying to marry the moral panic over internet chatrooms and boogermen kidnapping children via their hard drive to illegal downloading? "Negative pitfalls" (as opposed, of course, to those well-know positive pitfalls), lots of talk of being safe, lots of warnings of dangers - and maybe they're right - download a copy of the Tots TV theme tune, and your kid could find themselves being held hostage by sweaty blokes from the BPI demanding hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Of course, it's not enough to warn about the dangers - where would we be if all we did was stop people downloading? No, this is all about making good little consumers:

Virgin Megastores’ Dennis Henderson said: "We believe that is as vitally important to positively inform parents and children how to download legally, as it is to avoid the dangers of illegal filesharing."

This campaign is being supported by a charity - Childnet. Is it really part of their remit to be creating customers for international companies?

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