Guest blog by Jo-Ann Amadeo and Rick Rockelli of the Close Up Foundation*

What does the music industry have in common with the housing industry? Expansion has caused them to meet up with some wily creatures. We've all seen the nature shows on TV. We know what happens when urban development expands into rural areas. Nature sometimes bites back – and in ways we did not anticipate.

A similar thing is happening in the music industry. Technology has catapulted downloading past the early adopter and into the lap of one wily creature: the teenager. The teenager is known for its resentment of authority, its disdain for the status quo, its constant need to communicate with friends and its inability to think beyond the present. Even its fundamental weakness (vulnerability to peer pressure) can profoundly increase the spread of illegal music sharing.

For over 40 years, this creature has adopted new music, from rock to disco, to techno and now to hip hop and rap. However, its creativity lay dormant in terms of being able to share this music with friends. That changed when CDs, the Internet and cell phones came along. It was a perfect storm. The music industry, hand-held makers and even phone companies made sure that teens became aware of how easy gadgets were to use. There was no need to explain the pleasure. Teens are quick to find that, often without thinking of consequences.

Why should we care? Illegal music sharing is rampant among teens. For example, in Australia, authorities believe that 1-in-3 teens ages 14-to-17 do it. Herald Sun (March 3, 2008) Some skeptics might even say that the other 2 just didn't admit to it — or haven't been caught.

As educators, we wanted to find out what U.S. teenagers think — and whether their attitudes would change if they get the facts. So we ventured into one of their habitats – suburban high schools. We conducted an experiment with 183 students (ages 13-19). Students took a pretest then read a pamphlet describing how music sharing affects stakeholders, including artists.

The post-test results were surprising. The percentage of students who said they were "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about illegal music downloading increased 55%. Similarly, the percentage who agreed that music downloading is "stealing and is wrong" increased to 32% – versus 22% on the pre-test. And 80% said posting music on a site for others to share is illegal – vs. 68% on the pre-test.

These findings show that teen attitudes DO change when teens are given the facts. As an important caution, however, we found out that many teenagers start downloading in middle school, not high school. Thus, any future effort to educate should extend to this audience as well.

*The views expressed here are the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Close Up Foundation.

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