CBBFC News

Research on children watching illegal downloads

New research by the Industry Trust has shown that plenty of children and teenagers have been disturbed by something they have seen on an illegal website.

The Industry Trust works together with the British film, TV and video industry to educate the public about how important is it to only watch films from proper, legal websites. To make things easier for kids and their parents the Trust runs a website called Find Any Film at www.FindAnyFilm.com where you can find any film which is safely and legally available to watch on download.

The online research survey asked a thousand 11-15 year olds in the United Kingdom about what sort of things they watch online and which sites they use. One in five young film fans admit they have been disturbed by the movies they have watched on pirate websites, and two thirds wish they had checked the film’s official age rating first.

Keeping children safe

That’s why the Holby City actress, Tina Hobley – who also has three children –  is encouraging parents to keep an eye on what their kids are watching online this summer. She’s telling them about the free tools and advice they can use, to try and keep their children safe from watching things that might upset them. She also said children could learn themselves about age ratings and using the internet safely, for example, by using sites like this one.

One of the main problems with pirate sites is you don't know what you are going to get when you download or share films there - they are unlikely to have the age ratings and you may not even get the film you've asked for. Luckily most legal sites do have this info.