Wireless Porn Bedevils Workplace
Posted 03-20-2008 at 09:07 AM by WebBilling.com
WORKPLACE PORN WOES
Devices providing wireless access to the Internet appear to be giving the porn-at-work phenomenon a boost, even as employers are getting more aggressive about using software to block workers' access to the websites, says a recent USA Today report.
About 65% of U.S. companies used such software in 2005, according to a survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, up from 40% in 2001.
But many employers are getting very worried anyway, because it's so easy to access porn on portable devices -- even those that are company-owned and outfitted to block access to adult-oriented websites -- they are increasingly concerned about being sued by employees who are offended when they notice what co-workers are up to.
Adult images are present on more than 25% of corporate and public sector network PCs according to a recent study by filtering company PixAlert [http://www.pixalert.com]. The sample audit of more than 10,000 PCs also found that 12% of the email accounts and 5% of 26,000 file server shares scanned contained such images. About half of the images were hardcore, but only 0.3% were determined to be illegal.
While 35% of the inappropriate images were downloaded from the Internet, more than 45% were traced to emails, with almost 20% of those contained in outbound emails and 35% in internal emails.
Although many surveys have shown that it isn't unusual for employees to run across adult websites at work, few say they did it intentionally.
With wireless devices, close monitoring of workers is "impossible. There's nothing you can do," stated Richard Laermer, CEO of the public relations firm RLM. "Liability is the thing that keeps me up at night, because we are liable for things people do on our premises. It's serious. I'll see somebody doing it, and I'll peek over their shoulder, and they'll say, 'I don't know how that happened.' It's like 10-year-olds. And it's always on company time."
About 16% of men who have access to the Internet at work acknowledged having seen porn while on the job, according to a survey for Websense by Harris Interactive in 2006. Eight percent of women said they had. But of those who acknowledged viewing porn sites at work, only 6% of men and 5% of women acknowledged that they had done so intentionally.
"Corporate officers wrongly assume that boundary protection systems stop all digital pornography from entering the organization, but in PixAlert's experience, almost all corporations will have a significant amount of pornography on their networks."
When it comes to portable devices, employers can use blocking software if they have provided the equipment to workers, said Richard Chaifetz, CEO of ComPsych, a Chicago-based employee-assistance provider. However, there is little they can do if employees have their own BlackBerrys or other devices. In such cases, Chaifetz said, some employers have begun restricting the use of employee-owned laptops or cellphones during work time or meetings.
A big problem for corporations maybe, but also a big opportunity for adult, which is definitely headed in the mobile direction. In 2006, adult mobile content generated about $1.4 billion in sales worldwide in a market where mobile entertainment in general generated only about $17 billion all told, according to Juniper Research. By 2011, adult content is expected to account for $3.3 billion worth of mobile content sales.
Devices providing wireless access to the Internet appear to be giving the porn-at-work phenomenon a boost, even as employers are getting more aggressive about using software to block workers' access to the websites, says a recent USA Today report.
About 65% of U.S. companies used such software in 2005, according to a survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, up from 40% in 2001.
But many employers are getting very worried anyway, because it's so easy to access porn on portable devices -- even those that are company-owned and outfitted to block access to adult-oriented websites -- they are increasingly concerned about being sued by employees who are offended when they notice what co-workers are up to.
Adult images are present on more than 25% of corporate and public sector network PCs according to a recent study by filtering company PixAlert [http://www.pixalert.com]. The sample audit of more than 10,000 PCs also found that 12% of the email accounts and 5% of 26,000 file server shares scanned contained such images. About half of the images were hardcore, but only 0.3% were determined to be illegal.
While 35% of the inappropriate images were downloaded from the Internet, more than 45% were traced to emails, with almost 20% of those contained in outbound emails and 35% in internal emails.
Although many surveys have shown that it isn't unusual for employees to run across adult websites at work, few say they did it intentionally.
With wireless devices, close monitoring of workers is "impossible. There's nothing you can do," stated Richard Laermer, CEO of the public relations firm RLM. "Liability is the thing that keeps me up at night, because we are liable for things people do on our premises. It's serious. I'll see somebody doing it, and I'll peek over their shoulder, and they'll say, 'I don't know how that happened.' It's like 10-year-olds. And it's always on company time."
About 16% of men who have access to the Internet at work acknowledged having seen porn while on the job, according to a survey for Websense by Harris Interactive in 2006. Eight percent of women said they had. But of those who acknowledged viewing porn sites at work, only 6% of men and 5% of women acknowledged that they had done so intentionally.
"Corporate officers wrongly assume that boundary protection systems stop all digital pornography from entering the organization, but in PixAlert's experience, almost all corporations will have a significant amount of pornography on their networks."
When it comes to portable devices, employers can use blocking software if they have provided the equipment to workers, said Richard Chaifetz, CEO of ComPsych, a Chicago-based employee-assistance provider. However, there is little they can do if employees have their own BlackBerrys or other devices. In such cases, Chaifetz said, some employers have begun restricting the use of employee-owned laptops or cellphones during work time or meetings.
A big problem for corporations maybe, but also a big opportunity for adult, which is definitely headed in the mobile direction. In 2006, adult mobile content generated about $1.4 billion in sales worldwide in a market where mobile entertainment in general generated only about $17 billion all told, according to Juniper Research. By 2011, adult content is expected to account for $3.3 billion worth of mobile content sales.
Total Comments 0
Comments
Recent Blog Entries by WebBilling.com
- Promotion is the New Navigation (06-17-2008)
- Internet Rules at Japanese Companies (04-08-2008)
- Wireless Porn Bedevils Workplace (03-20-2008)
