Trends in intentional use of illegal sources to access media content in the EU 2022
Are the days of young people using the internet to illegally access media content over? According to a study by the European Union Intellectual Property Office, not exactly. Within the EU, Malta has the highest share of young people claiming to have intentionally used illegal sources to access media content at 43 percent. In second place at 29 percent are Belgium, France, and Estonia. In about half of all EU countries, between one-fifth and just under a third of young people report using illegal sources to access media online. Perhaps unsurprisingly given Germany's stringent copyright legislation, only 12 percent of young people there reported intentionally using illegal sources.