The UK film, TV, video and music industries have joined forces with internet safety charity, Childnet International, to launch a campaign to provide clarity for parents and teachers when it comes to accessing music, films, TV and video safely and legally on the internet.

The Industry Trust for IP Awareness (which represents the film and TV industry in the UK) and the BPI (which represent the music industry in the UK and internationally) have collaborated with Childnet International as part of their ongoing commitment to educate consumers about the wealth of legal online services for music, film, TV and video content.

The organisations first collaborated in 2010 to create the free guide Music, Films and the Internet, which has now been updated online at www.childnet.com/downloading with new advice and information in reaction to common questions received from parents and teachers by Childnet's Education team.

New additions to the guide include advice to help parents and teachers determine whether a website for music, film, TV and video content is legal or not as new research commissioned to launch the campaign reveals the extent of consumer confusion over pirate sites.

A new online study by YouGov asked 2,061 UK adults to differentiate websites offering music, film and TV illegally from legitimate retailer sites by showing them five de-branded screen-grabs from a selection of pirate and legitimate sites. It revealed:

- one in four of all UK adults (24%) was unable to differentiate any pirate websites from the real deal;

- confusion was high among parents in particular: 36% of parents were unable to correctly identify any of the pirate websites;

- young people aged 18-24 were the least likely to be confused by pirate sites.

The research builds on Ofcom's findings last year that 41% of adults are unsure whether the content they are accessing online is legal or not - and points to the need to provide parents, in particular, with greater support.

The guide was launched this week with a national media campaign fronted by TV actress and mum of three, Keeley Hawes, and Childnet's Director of Policy, Lucinda Fell.

The free online guide encourages parents and teachers to discuss with children the types of websites they are visiting to get their songs, films and TV programmes and highlights the safety risks and legal implications of using illegal pirate and file-sharing sites. The guide signposts to legal sources of music, film, TV and video content online through tools like www.FindAnyFilm.com, www.whymusicmatters.org and www.thecontentmap.com.

Story filed 12.04.13