Could a quarter of your workforce be wasting time and watching porn at work? Apparently so…
Sky is one of the UK’s biggest Internet suppliers, with roughly 5.5 million users. Their decision to add a ‘porn filter’ by default is causing some controversy, but the public discussion holds some interesting insights you can learn and adapt to your workplace.
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According to research conducted by Nielsen, 25% of respondents admitted to viewing porn at work. More revealing perhaps is that 70% of those surveyed said they accessed porn between 9AM and 5PM – exactly when they should be working.
How Porn Affects The Workplace
Part of the reason Sky decided to add a default porn filter was to protect children from inappropriate content. A noble sentiment – we can all agree porn is inappropriate for children, and just as easily we can all agree that porn is inappropriate for the workplace, for a number of reasons:
Upsetting Other Employees – Taint The Workplace Environment
The vast majority of employees, male and female alike, don’t want to catch someone viewing explicit content in a formal and professional setting. Not only is it undeniably awkward, it can completely disrupt trust and friendship that’s key to productivity, and it’s very likely to be considered as highly offensive.
Legal Ramifications
There are a variety of ways porn can put your company in legal hot water:
- Sexual harassment complaints – unsolicited exposure to porn can be construed as sexual harassment. When it happens on company computers or company grounds the company is likely to be liable.
- In some countries accessing porn is illegal, period. Needless to say having people accessing illegal content on company property, and / or grounds exposes the company to serious consequences.
- Sadly child pornography remains an issue that must be addressed. This type of content is illegal in all jurisdictions we’re familiar with, and beside the dire legal consequences involved, even in cases where the legal culpability is resolved, the PR damage alone can be enough to completely devalue the business.
Productivity
Aside from the obvious time wasted viewing porn (we’re assuming your employees aren’t supposed to be watching porn art work…), porn sites hold further and more dire consequences for productivity – The likelihood of being exposed to malware is hugely increased when accessing porn sites.
It’s an unwanted risk to your company’s security and leads you to potentially deal with costly computer replacements or repairs.
How Can You Protect Your Business?
One of the best ways to discourage porn access on work computes is as effective as it’s simple – monitor your company’s devices. People are far less likely to access sites they shouldn’t when they’re aware that their browsing is being monitored.
Most leading employee monitoring software solutions offer a number of features that make them highly effective at preventing inappropriate workplace browsing:
- Website history – This is pretty straightforward – Any and every website that is accessed from the monitored PC (or smartphone) is recorded, regardless of such measures as anonymous browsing etc.
- Keyword search – Setup alerts for keywords and phrases that are likely to be associated with porn browsing and be alerted whenever anyone attempts any of these searches.
- Keystrokes – Know exactly what employees are typing.
- Emails – See emails being sent and received – this is useful for identifying porn in attachments or links to porn.
Porn in the workplace is a serious issue, and with 25% of surveyed employees admitting access, it’s like playing Russian roulette with the odds heavily stacked
against you. All it takes is one incident and you and your company could face dire consequences.
With the cost of avoidance being so low, it’s simply not worth the risk to stay exposed. Protect your business from the social, financial and legal consequences that porn can bring – start monitoring today.
Do you think that your workers are wasting time at work? Maybe you have proof? Let us know in the comments sections below!