Gone are the days where the only real concerns about online content were by parents watching their child whizz around the internet at mach three, not knowing where they might end up, or wondering what they were really doing when "researching" for homework. Whilst the internet is an amazing tool and allows many businesses to work more efficiently, and communicate information much faster, it does, however, have a flip side, which, if not correctly monitored, could cost business dear.

In most cases, businesses don't feel that they have to "nanny" their staff, monitoring what they're doing every minute of every day. Usually, a business will have an IT or internet policy that an employee agrees to, that states they will not use the company's internet for anything other than work. Alternatively it may state that non work related surfing is fine during lunch times, or before or after working hours, for example.

Unfortunately this promise is often broken. With the advent of many new online genres, the internet holds new temptations and staff often regard the computer sitting on the desk in front of them as "theirs" and not as a tool provided by the company to enable them to do their job.

Unless your company has some sort or web blocking or filtering, social networking sites such as Facebook, auction sites such as eBay, gambling sites, gaming sites, chat rooms and instant messaging programs, not to mention pornographic websites and illegal music/movie sites, are ALL available to each member of staff at the click of a mouse. If you trust every member of staff in the organisation implicitly, and are sure that they would never visit any of the above sites during work hours, you can stop reading now.

I thought not....

There are many products available to monitor and limit internet access, most giving the ability to block or limit websites based on a category set, like pornography, or games, or specific sites by URL. You can specify the condition of access, such as; ‘block', ‘allow', or ‘allow only at a specific time or for a specific period of time'. This condition can be set company wide, for a given individual, or by group/department.

As you can imagine this can greatly improve staff productivity, by removing the temptation to shop online, find out what your best mate did last night, or bid on that rare item that you've always wanted, during work hours. On a more serious note, this can also limit a company's liability against possible legal action in cases where a company's computers and internet are used for illegal purposes, such as downloading of copyright material (music/movies) or illegal/illicit pornography. In addition, most of these products also keep logs of internet activity to allow tracking and evidence to be created as required.

It would be nice to think that measures like this are not required in business. But, with the internet becoming such a large part of our everyday lives, taking some proactive steps to monitor and/or limit access to internet sites, can help help to protect both your staff and your company. Plus, it can optimise the use of IT resources to boot. So, not really a tool for tyrants. A flexible web filtering solution can have a positive impact, all round.