Young people did not feel downloading songs in MP3 format from the Internet violated copyrights, according to a survey by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong. The survey - An Exploratory Study of Youth Ethics in Information Technology - looked at students' use of information technology (IT) and their moral values. The survey polled 1,089 Forms Four to Seven students from six secondary schools. A total of 82.1 per cent of young people had violated copyrights or performed acts of piracy on the Net including using pirated software and shareware, and recording songs in MP3 format for others to download. Those polled generally found the acts acceptable. Among them, 48.1 per cent believed it was acceptable to record songs in MP3 for others to download. The survey also found 68.3 per cent of interviewees spent less than 10 hours a week on-line surfing Web sites, using ICQ and sending e-mail. Almost 67 per cent of interviewees download software and files regularly from the Net. Nearly 86 per cent of the young people believed that ethics should be promoted in school, and 67.1 per cent thought it was the Government's responsibility to do so. Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association executive secretary Hong Kong Fu Suk-yin said that it was important to merge technical knowledge with moral values in IT education. Teachers should equip themselves for the fast-changing world of IT to be able to give stu dent guidance. In addition, parents should consider surfing the Net with their children to get a better understanding and give appropriate advice. Lam Ping-hei, 17, a member of the association, had downloaded songs from the Web, but would not put them up for others to download. 'It's simply time- consuming,' he said. Ping-hei said that buying a CD was too expensive. Besides, he might not like all the songs on an album so would rather download individual songs free from the Web. Another member, Lee Pak- hung, 18, said that he could not learn enough IT knowledge from school. He wanted to see schools provide more up-to- date information. He suggested the Government promote more positive messages about IT to parents to encourage them to make more use of it. 'Parents would have a better understanding if they knew what children were doing on computers,' he said. 'If my parents are willing to learn, I would be pleased to surf the Net with them.' Jessica is a summer intern from Hong Kong Shue Yan College