P2P Primer for Parents

Our extremely capable Christopher Null recently took a look at major universities' policies on peer-to-peer networking, used to share files as well as copyrighted music and movies. But if you're a parent of younger children like me, you may need to take a few steps back to see what P2P is all about before establishing your own in-house policy.

P2P, or peer-to-peer, networks operate similar to browsers. Just as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox allow you to access web sites, P2P applications allow you  access networks, which let you share files with other users on that network. Once a peer-to-peer application is installed, you can allow anyone in the world to copy files from your home PC, and you can in turn access files on their machines.

As parents, here's what you need to know about P2P:

• It's illegal to share copyrighted materials, such as songs and movies, the main use of P2P networks among teenagers, over the Internet.

• Most Internet filters do not block peer-to-peer file sharing programs. So, while you think you've got a pretty good handle on where your kids can go on the web, if they've downloaded a P2P application, they've found a way around filters.

• If you have access to work files at home through a secure network, you could be opening those files to your teenager and others who are sharing files with them.

• Some P2P providers bundle Spyware and Adware applications that allow marketing companies to track where you go on the web. Even if you don't mind the privacy breach, you may mind that these programs can slow your computer down big time. And your kids could bring in viruses through P2P files, too.

• Your kids have access to more than music files through peer-to-peer networking. A good many of the files shared P2P are pornographic.

Napster was the first big name in P2P file sharing; it was shut down a while back, and has relaunched as a legal music service supported by advertisers and subscriptions. (Chris writes about why college kids are ignoring Napster's free offer here.) But plenty of other free P2P networks have sprouted in its place. Some names to look for are BitTorrent, Kazaa, Limewire and Gnutella.

If this whets your interest in P2P and you want more info, check out P2P coverage on netfamilynews.org and this FBI warning on peer-to-peer networks. And if you've got any P2P stories from the home front, please share them below. No P2P network required.