The recording industry, struggling to curb music piracy, is shining the spotlight on another demon lurking on the Internet: pornography.

The industry is trying to enlist broader public support with a campaign intended to show that its nemesis -- the peer-to-peer networks for swapping files like KaZaA and Morpheus -- are used not only to trade songs but also pornographic images, including child pornography.

''As a guy in the record industry and as a parent, I am shocked that these services are being used to lure children to stuff that is really ugly,'' said Andrew Lack, the chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment.

Others ask whether raising this issue is more than a little cynical from an industry that heavily promotes music with sexual and violent themes.

''The entertainment companies have engaged in a deliberate and despicable campaign of lies to smear peer-to-peer technology for political purposes,'' said Philip S. Corwin, a lobbyist for Sharman Networks, the publisher of KaZaA, the largest file-sharing service. ''They are trying to associate us unfairly with the most vile element in society, child pornography.''

Pornography has been actively traded through file-sharing services from their start. But the record labels have recently started lending lobbying and logistical support to antipornography and child protection groups that are raising the issue. For example, Dan Klores Communications, which represents Sony Music and other music clients, has been promoting Parents for Megan's Law, a Long Island group involved with preventing child abuse that has been critical of child pornography available through file-sharing services, like KaZaA.