Filter out the covert porn

Crispin Pikes outlines a clear strategy for employers to keep pornography and illegal images off corporate networks

While employers claim they strongly discourage access to inappropriate images at work, in reality most will have a significant amount on their networks.
But by installing web access controls that are too restrictive or total blocks, employers risk alienating their employees. Provided work targets are met, management should not view responsible use
of the internet as a negative.
There are particular problems with young adults entering the workforce. They have grown up with access to digital communication and information mediums, and cutting them off can make for an unhappy workforce.
Yet a vast number of workers continue to ignore corporate policies and distribute inappropriate material. Enterprises face potential sexual harassment suits, and even criminal prosecution, if they cannot prove they have taken all reasonably practical measures to stop
employees accessing or spreading offensive sexual content via the
corporate infrastructure.
The Protection of Children Act makes bosses liable for criminal prosecution for failure to stop employees from using the company IT systems to download, upload, store or distribute child porn.
Arguably, the most effective defence against illicit imagery is
to install real-time monitoring. Although image analysis filters are not 100 per cent accurate, little is.
Managers need to take steps towards an effective solution. The first step is to define clear policies on acceptable use of all company-provided IT kit and the handling of potentially illegal images.
Employees then need to be educated in and made aware of these policies, told why compliance is necessary and what the consequences of not doing so are.
From there, companies should install monitoring and filter appliances to identify individuals
accessing pornographic content.
Management also needs to inflict appropriate disciplinary actions, although the embarrassment of being caught by filtering solutions is usually enough.
Crispin Pikes is chief executive of Image Analyser