I forgot to re-cap the teen panel at Computers, Freedom and Privacy last week due to traveling. I had an absolute blast. The teens were chosen based on their comfort with speaking on stage and their ability to articulate their thoughts and reflect on the attitudes of their peers. They were by no means “average” teens but their perspective was so valuable for helping folks think about their constructions of privacy. Plus, i absolutely adored talking to them. Late night IM sessions planning the panel, goofy conversations on the floor of the conference hall that often emerged from someone saying “well, duh, everyone knows that” and me going “umm… actually, i’d bet that lots of folks here *don’t* know that.”

Although i haven’t read it, Wired seems to have a transcript from the event. To paraphrase one of my favorite interactions that occurred:

me: so, how much do you use file-sharing these days?
teens: not much… everyone seems to say it’s illegal and there’s definitely a bit of fear
me: so do you buy CDs now?
teens: definitely not
me: how do you get your music?
teens: we go over to others’ houses and copy music from their computers or make ripped CDs for each other or….

There were lots of conversations about how whenever industry or adults try to make it difficult for teens to do certain things, they always figure out how to do what they want anyhow. The thing about file-sharing kills me though because it reminds me that the sharing of music is still, always was and always will be a sociable process, shared between friends. Just because we’re trying to put locks on the ability to trade music doesn’t mean we haven’t always done this and won’t continue to do so. I remember the art of tape-recording from the radio station to make perfect mixed tapes for friends. Same practice, new technology.