An international campaign started by the British Phonographic Industry aims to teach kids around the world that downloading pirated content is not a good thing, BPI announced today. With the help of international music organizations, BPI will distribute special guides addressed to parents, teachers and students in 5,500 schools, 2,300 libraries and 125 UK music retailers, BPI said in a press release published today. Entitled "Young People, Music and the Internet", the guides are supposed to help both kids and parents remain on the safe side and respect the copyrights when it comes to multimedia content.

Artists around the world have already announced their support for the campaign, Ronan Keating being one of the singers who admitted that such an attempt is a pretty good way to help kids stay on the safe side without infringing copyrights.

"I am a father of three young kids who are all very interested in music and computers, they are forever asking to use the computer to download their favorite songs. There is a constant worry about the security of the Internet with children. This new guide helps adults and children to use the Internet safely and securely. The Internet is a fantastic tool for us all to enjoy," he commented.

A similar campaign started in China a few days ago and had a similar goal: to teach students and local users that sharing pirated content over the Internet is a bad thing and may only bring them and their computers into trouble. However, today's campaign is only addressed to music piracy because, according to the BPI officials, this phenomenon tends to grow up and there are only a few efforts meant to reduce it.

"Even though there are plenty of licensed, safe and legal digital music services available, illegal downloading is still widespread, and there's a lack of decent information out there for parents and teachers. But we hope that this campaign will help fill that gap, de-mystify music on the Internet, and encourage more people to start downloading legally," BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said.