Would you teach your kids how to pirate?

My gf and I have had discussions about teaching morals to kids. In that vein, I asked myself, would I teach piracy to my kids? Yes, it’s technically illegal and carries inherent risks. But so does teenage sex carry the risks of teenage pregnancy, and so we have an obligation to children to teach them how to practice safe sex. So, is it necessary to teach them how to stay safe in the sea? How to install adblockers, how to detect fake download sites that give you computer aids? Show them how to use a VPN and choosing the right one (a true pirate must always choose a VPN with port forwarding capabilities, so you can still seed) I feel like this is all valuable info we all learned as pirates the hard way, and valuable information to pass on to our kids.

I definitely want my kids to know about libgen. Want a book you want to read about? Wanna learn about dinosaurs from a college level textbook for whatever reason? Just go to libgen, son!

And I attribute most of my computer literacy and education to piracy, trying to install cracks to various games, trying to make games work, and modding the fuck out of skyrim as a young teenager. That, and also jailbreaking android phones. All the interesting things i’ve ever done with computers was probably against some BS terms of service.

So, is piracy something you would actively teach your kids? Sit them down and teach them how to install a Fallout 3 FitGirl repack? Or is this something you’d want them to figure out themselves?

AbsoluteAggressor ,
@AbsoluteAggressor@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

No. I plan on treating it as other adult things.
"Oh, you got into this? Well, here is how you protect yourself. "

Computer literacy wise? I hope my daughter gets the curiosity into it. Other things as well. More you know and understand, the better.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Absolutely. My entire network is behind a VPN, so they can't fuck up. Windows is banned in my household, so I'm not worried about malware. I'm not paying 20 bucks a month for limited access to the ever shrinking Netflix library, which I can't even use behind a VPN or share with other people. Piracy is the only way forward.

Tabitha ,
@Tabitha@hexbear.net avatar

sicko-tux

mihor ,

My spirit animal!

UnRelatedBurner ,

Bro, I've started saying this line not that long ago, are we in a hive-mind?

bamboo ,

Windows is banned in my household, so l'm not worried about malware.

This is a false sense of security and just because you're not running Windows doesn't mean you're immune to everything and can let your defenses down. For example, KDE recently had to announce that downloading themes will execute arbitrary code and cited someone who had personal information deleted because of downloading a theme.

lseif ,

well its a step up at least...

bamboo ,

Exactly, like how an ocean liner is a step up above a sailboat. That doesn't mean you're unsinkable and don't need to worry about icebergs.

KillingTimeItself ,

in regards to privacy using something like windows already has you fucked up. As opposed to something like using KDE which might rm -rf your system.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I knew I would get a comment about this. Yes, I absolutely know that Linux is not at all immune to malware, but the chances of finding Linux malware on a typical piracy website are very low. That's why Anti-virus is unecessary on Linux.

zaknenou ,
@zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

TempleOS! You will never find malware for that holy OS

Ildsaye ,

chefs-kiss

HopeOfTheGunblade ,
@HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social avatar

My mom introduced me to Napster. So at this point, it would be a family tradition.

ReversalHatchery ,

Adblockers? Absolutely! The good adblockers (ublock origin with more lists enabled) also help to thwart trackers.

And by your example, yes, even piracy, not just because I agree with doing it, but because if they will be going to do that too, they could as well do it safely, to the extent it's possible.

Interestingly, as I read your post, a lot of topics align already with what I deem even more important: privacy. It seems it's not only the words that are similar.

SorteKanin ,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

You're asking this in a piracy community, so you'll obviously get a certain kind of answer. Not saying you should or shouldn't, just be aware of the bias of where you're asking this question.

keepcarrot ,

But also yes

mihor ,

You mean aye, matey!

index ,

Doesn't sound like an easy task, perhaps a good start would be teaching them how to tie knots and learn wind direction. Once they are old enough to travel book a vacation to somalia and introduce them to the place, that's where most of piracy is going on these days

WeirdGoesPro ,
@WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

“Look at me…I’m the daddy now” as a Somali pirate

DoucheBagMcSwag ,

Absolutely. If I had any

kusivittula ,

my mom taught me how to pirate almost 20 years ago

FriendlyBeagleDog ,

It's not as though the existence and mechanisms of piracy are a coveted secret. There's a decent chance that they'll learn about and attempt it independently, and the method they learn about online might expose them to greater risk than if they did it with more consideration.

On that basis, I think that knowledge transfer is at worst harm reduction. If it's immoral, which I don't believe it is, then at the very least your intervention could prevent them from being preyed upon by some copyright troll company when they do it despite your silence or protestations.

idkmybffjoeysteel ,
@idkmybffjoeysteel@hexbear.net avatar

Until their frontal lobe fully develops I will do it for them.

Omgboom ,

Of course, if I didn't they might end up using a public tracker to download torrents

anothermember ,

How to install adblockers, how to detect fake download sites that give you computer aids? Show them how to use a VPN and choosing the right one (a true pirate must always choose a VPN with port forwarding capabilities, so you can still seed) I feel like this is all valuable info we all learned as pirates the hard way, and valuable information to pass on to our kids.

Absolutely, I would say whether you're teaching piracy or not, those are essential things that everyone online must know about; it would be unethical to allow your kids to go online without that protection.

0xtero ,
@0xtero@beehaw.org avatar

Teaching kids good, healthy anticapitalist values is important. It's also good to teach them some basic computing and privacy skills, because they're not going to get that anywhere else. They're going to be under lot of social peer pressure to have the latest phones and being connected on social media, consuming information from algorithms.They need to understand how to minimize the harm from Meta and the big tech.

Same applies to the copyright industry and their practices (along with corps who are heavily anti-repair like Apple) - they need to understand the exploitation model of capitalism and lobbying - from there, let them make their own choices.

Lettuceeatlettuce ,
@Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml avatar

Piracy is a great example of a topic where legality and morality aren't the same.

Those kinds of topics are incredibly valuable teaching moments for children.

I would teach them when they are mature enough. Help them understand why some people think it is wrong, when/why you think it is acceptable, and how to do it safely.

You can teach them the difference between actual theft and copying. Explain how piracy has benefited humanity as a whole, explain why knowledge and cultural experiences shouldn't be gate kept by mega-corps from underprivileged people.

There are so many valuable lessons that you as parents could pass on to your kids through the topic of piracy.

And as every major platform enshitifies and information of all kinds gets locked behind more paywalls, piracy will become a more and more important skill to have.

dutchkimble ,

I'd never thought about this but when the time comes I'll teach my sons, but hopefully they'll tell me some new way I don't know yet. Also a true pirate should check out Usenet.

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