controversial opinion but we need to stop fear mongering (quite so much) about torrenting as a means of piracy. torrenting is the og. if you actually want a copy of the file? torrenting.
its always "you need a vpn" however. 1) check your local laws! the us cracks down a lot but many other countries really dont gaf or limit the ability of a company to sue you. 2) if you arent pirating the latest media, literally no one cares. torrenting the latest disney star wars show? yeah, they might ding you. getting anything older than 10 years ago and anything less than top 10 of the decade? who cares. (specifically for film/tv/music, idk abt the other stuff).
you can always torrent non-pirated material if you want to learn how the whole thing works, because many non-copyrighted, or less restrictively licensed works are available thru torrent. a torrent is literally just a way to send files over the internet.
torrenting programs are not that bad to learn. if you can learn to use any art program you can most certainly learn to use a torrent client.
torrenting lets you actively give back, too. you get to share your file w other people. and it's decentralized, certainly more so than an illegal streaming service.
in terms of getting a virus? torrenting is probably no riskier than having a fucking email account. you can use the same skills to go hmmm, does this look bad? as literally everywhere else on the internet.