Hints at possible long term trend.
The UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom), regulator for the communications industries in that country, recently published a report on the state of media literacy among adults aged 16 and over.
Conducted during this past spring, the report shows that the population is more connected than ever before with three in four adults saying they used the internet at home or elsewhere in 2009 (75%), compared to two-thirds (63%) in 2007 and three-fifths (59%) in 2005.
One in three UK adults who use the internet (29%) say they are watching online or
downloading TV programs or films. Almost all of these are doing so through UK TV broadcasters’ websites (such as BBC iPlayer) (27%), with a much smaller proportion watching online or downloading TV programs or movies from other websites (9%).
When it comes to file-sharing, more adults believe that it should be illegal (42%) than believe it should not be illegal (33%).
However, the youngest adults, those aged 16-24, are the only group within the
adult population in which the majority say P2P should not be illegal (55% vs. 33% of all adults).
Adults aged 65 and over are more likely than adults as a whole to say they don’t know (37% vs. 25%) if it should be illegal or not, and this is also true of females compared to males (29% vs. 21%).
What’s interesting is that the study also says the same group of adults that think P2P should be legal (16-24yos) along with those aged 25-34yo are also more likely than all adult internet users to download or watch TV programs or films online (40% and 43% vs. 29%).
By contrast, downloading or watching TV programs or films online is relatively uncommon among internet users aged 55 and over (11% vs. 29%).
What this means is that so long as there’s a gap between content available legally online and what consumers are demanding file-sharing will always be the solution. It’s perhaps why many think it ought to be legal.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
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P2P isn’t illegal.
Shouldn’t the surveyors have asked about downloading copyrighted material?