Employee web addicts search for porn
Twenty five percent of employees feel addicted to the internet, with many of these undertaking porn searches, according to research conducted by employee management firm Websense.
Link: Company porn surfers get the boot
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, consisted of 305 employee interviews. It revealed that the average worker spent more than one entire workday each week surfing non-work-related websites.
Among those polled, 67% confessed to visiting websites for personal reasons. Most were shoppers, (24%): next were news junkies (23%); then pornography searchers (18%); gamblers (8%), and auction aficionados (6%).
‘The survey shows there is a huge gap between what employees are doing on the Internet and what employers know,’ said Harold Kester, chief technology officer for Websense. ‘Left unchecked, free and open internet use can lead to severe productivity and legal liability issues for organizations.’
For example, says Websense, while 78% of employers block employee access to pornography, only 47% block access to gambling sites, 20% block shopping and auction sites, and 4% block news sites.
Companies such as Websense, Secure Computing, Advanced Productivity Software and SurfControl are among those that provide systems for companies needing to filter personal Web usage in the workplace. Typically, the software product is installed on the server and integrates with the firewall, cache engine, or proxy server, and via a database or URLs, monitors and controls Web site access.