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Porn surfing pipeline to unemployment

By Tim Higgins
The Des Moines Register

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Frank Harty, for one, is not surprised.

The corporate lawyer says his docket is full of cases in which employees were caught using their company's computer to access sexually explicit Web sites or send dirty e-mail or instant messages.

Torrid on the job Of workers asked in a survey about use of computers on the job for "romance/sexual purposes": • 43 percent said it "has negative impact on productivity" • 54 percent said it "is not having a negative impact on productivity" • 3 percent were unsure — Employment Law Alliance

"It's pretty torrid," says Harty, who represents the employers in such cases. Employees "don't realize that, when they send these messages back and forth, it's like posting their love letters on the firm bulletin board."

Most companies have policies against surfing the Web for porn, he said. It's an easy way to lose your job. Most companies employ technicians who can determine what Web sites workers have visited and what e-mail messages have been written.

Employment Law Alliance conducted the sex study, which asked nearly 800 workers with access to the Internet at work about their use. It found that 24 percent of respondents said they used or had a co-worker who used the work computer for "romance/sexual purposes."

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Six percent said they used the computers for "sexually explicit chatting/instant messaging."

The group was nearly split on whether it was a good use of the time: 43 percent said such use "has negative impact on productivity" while 54 percent said it "is not having a negative impact on productivity."

Three percent were unsure.

Most companies have policies against "misuse" of company computers. Says Allied Insurance spokesman Kevin Craiglow: "It risks creating hostile work environments ... It risks reduced capacity and performance of the electronic systems we have, in addition to those things like exposing us to civil and criminal liability and lost productivity."

Allied has put a program into its computer system to filter specific Web sites employees can view.

Most businesses inform employees about the policy so they can't plead ignorance as a defense.

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