Managing Exposure to Online Pornography
Paul Laughton
University of Johannesburg
Department of Information and Knowledge Management
mwlaughton@iafrica.com
Prof Chris Rensleigh
University of Johannesburg
Department of Information and Knowledge Management
cr@rau.ac.za
1
Overview of presentation
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3.
4.
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6.
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Statistics on online pornography
Pornography by definition
Pornography as an online risk
Content filtering solutions
Acceptable use policy (AUP)
Conclusion
References
Statistics on the pornography industry
• It is estimated that the porn industry is worth $57
billion.
• This comprises of: Adult videos ($20 billion)
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Escort Services ($11 billion)
Magazines ($ 7.5 billion)
Sex Clubs ($ 5 billion)
Phone Sex ($ 4.5 billion)
Cable & Pay Per View ($ 2.5 billion)
Internet ($ 2.5 billion)
• The US porn industry generates more revenue then
ABC, CBS and NBC networks put together (6.2 billion)
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Statistics on online pornography
• Websites containing pornographic content make up
for 12% of total websites, that is 4.2 million
websites.
• 25% of daily search engine requests are related to
pornography.
• 8% of emails sent daily contain pornographic
content.
• Gnutella (P2P application) has 116 thousand daily
requests for child pornography.
• In September 2003 more then 32 million individuals
visited pornographic websites.
• According to Dr. Weiss (2000) sex is the most
searched topic on the Internet.
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What implications does this have on your
organisation?
• 30% of Web surfing is not work related.
• 70% of pornography downloads occur between
9am-5pm (SexTracker)
• 20% of employees examined by the Secure
Computing Corporation (2005) visited pornographic
websites while at work.
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Pornography by definition
• What is pornography?
• Is all content of a pornographic nature illegal?
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Pornography by definition
• The word pornography has evolved considerably
from the Greek language. In Late Greek the word
'pornographos' was used to describe writing about
prostitutes and encounters with prostitutes
(Dictionary.com 2004).
• The Merriam Webster Dictionary of Law (1996)
defines pornography as material that depicts erotic
behaviour and is intended to cause sexual
excitement.
• The Webster New World Encyclopedia (1992)
defines pornography as obscene literature,
pictures, photos or films of no academic merit,
intended only to arouse sexual desires.
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Pornography by definition
• The Webster’s New World Encyclopedia and the
Merrian Webster Dictionary of Law focus on
different themes.
• The Webster’s New World Encyclopedia focuses on
“obscene” content which is the lowest form of
pornography.
• While the Merrian Webster Dictionary of Law focus
on “erotic” content which is seen by some
psychologists more acceptable form of
pornography.
• The problem is that there are many forms and
definitions of pornography.
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Pornography by definition
The best way to get clarity on a definition of
pornography is to identify the different forms.
These are often misinterpreted by academics and
used in the wrong context.
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Pornography by definition
• Erotic : Of or concerning sexual love and desire.
Tending to arouse sexual desire.
Dominated by sexual love or desire
(The American Heritage Dictionary 2000).
•
This content may not actively depict people satisfying
their sexual desires and may only play on stimuli that
suggest sexual interaction
•
Often content of this nature is mistakably labeled as
obscene, by those with conservative views.
• Content of erotic nature is dominantly accepted by
adults, and can be viewed as artistic or creative in
certain cases.
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Pornography by definition
• Another form of pornography is obscenity. This is illegal
and contains disturbing media which can have a negative
effect on a persons mental state.
For something to be classified as obscene the
average person must find that the material (Lectric Library
Law 2002):
•
must appeal to predominately prurient (having or
encouraging unhealthy sexual curiosity)
• predicts or describes sexual conduct in an
offensive way
• lacks serious literacy, artistic, political or scientific
value.
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Pornography by definition
• The material on a whole must be viewed and
decided whether on the whole the total effect of
the material would fit into the description of
obscenity.
• Classic examples of such content would include
the like of bestiality and child pornography.
• This material is of a very sensitive nature and can
only be classified as desirable by few.
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Pornography by definition
• Not all forms of pornography are illegal to those
over the age of 18 years.
• Only obscene content is illegal.
• But this does not mean that people in the work
environment are able to access pornography at
work so long as it is not illegal.
• Any form of pornographic content presents a risk in
the work place even if it is not a criminal offence.
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Pornography as an online risk
Access to pornography can pose the following
problems for an organisation:
1.
2.
3.
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Legal liability
Loss of production to non-work related content
Loss of bandwidth.
Pornography as an online risk
1. Legal liability
Employees can be directly or indirectly liable for
sexual harassment based on a hostile work
environment.
• Direct liability is classified when the employee’s
supervisors sends pornographic content that is
perceived to be offensive by the employee.
• If the wrongful conduct is directed at the employer
as he/she is responsible for the conduct of the
supervisor (Overly 2002).
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Pornography as an online risk
• Indirect liability results when the employer fails to
restrict or correct activity that creates a hostile
working environment.
• This is commonly what happens to employer’s who
do not have a content filtering solution as well as
an effective acceptable use policy (AUP) in place.
It is necessary to take the right steps to prevent such
liability.
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Pornography as an online risk
2. Loss of productivity
• Around 20% of employees view content of
pornographic nature during work hours.
• One in five men and one in eight women admitted
to using their work’s Internet as the main channel
for accessing sexually explicit material (Secure
Computing Corporation 2005).
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Pornography as an online risk
A survey conducted by Valt.com revealed
how often employees used the corporate
Internet facilities to surf non work related
sites (Witzke 2002):
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•
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34.9%
38.1%
14.6%
12.4%
claimed
claimed
claimed
claimed
“a few times a week”
“a few times a day”
“I surf the Web constantly”
“never, that’s unethical”.
Pornography as an online risk
3. Loss of bandwidth
• In some organisations network surveys have found
that P2P file sharing networks (containing
pornography) have been responsible for consuming
up to 80% of the bandwidth.
• This can have a crippling effect on the networking
resources.
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Content filtering solutions
• What can be done to prevent unwanted access to
pornographic content?
• What control mechanisms can be put into place to
limit access to pornographic content?
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Content filtering solutions
The following two control mechanisms can be put into
place to limit users from accessing pornographic
content these are:
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•
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Content filtering
Implementation of Acceptable Use Policy
(AUP).
Content filtering solutions
• Content filtering is an active control mechanism
which physically restricts user from accessing
pornographic content.
• Content filtering parameters are setup to enforce
the AUP of an organisation.
• Content filtering allows an organisation to
determine exactly what content will be tolerated
and what will be restricted.
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Content Filtering
Four commonly used forms of content
filtering are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Keyword filtering
URL blocking
Content rating systems
Walled garden approach
Content Filtering
1. Keyword filtering
This system uses a list of objectionable
terms, blocking pages and e-mails containing words
that are considered to be indecent in nature.
This is the least sophisticated but requires careful
consideration when setting up.
Problems are created when words that are similar to
those that are meant to be blocked like “Sussex” are
blocked. The context that the words are used in are
not taken into consideration.
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Content Filtering
2. URL blocking (Website blocking)
Software filtering companies maintain databases of
unethical Websites which are often sorted into
different categories allowing user to filter out content
they see as unnecessary in the work environment.
This updates the filtering software and prevents
access to such Websites.
Unfortunately this approach requires constant
updating from both the software vendor and the users
of this filtering solution.
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Content Filtering
2. URL blocking (Website blocking)
With thousands of Websites being developed every
day it is a very demanding task to keep ahead with
the times.
One of the most comprehensive database held by a
content filtering software vendor is Surfcontrol.
Surfcontrol owns the world’s largest content database
which contains over 6 million Websites in 40 different
categories. This represents over 900 million Web
pages in 65 different languages with an average of
35000 Web sites being added each week.
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Content Filtering
3. Content rating systems
The two most active organisations that are involved
in the rating of content on the WWW are:
• Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
• Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA).
These organisations are based on a system of self
regulation. This requires publishers of content to rate
their Websites in line with predetermined parameters.
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Content Filtering
3. Content rating systems
Problems occur when parties involved are not honest
in their rating of their Website. There is no higher
power enforcing correct and honest rating of their
content.
This rating system relies on honesty and trust making
it susceptible to corruption.
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Content Filtering
4. Walled garden approach
This is the fairest and most reliable of all forms of
content filtering systems. User are only allowed
access to predetermined Websites. This ensures that
the Websites where access is granted to has been
checked and approved by IT management and
conforms to the AUP of the organisation.
This is however time consuming to setup and review
all the Websites that user are looking to access.
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Content Filtering
4. Walled garden approach
This form of content filtering is very restrictive and
often leaves valuable information resources out.
Organisations need to be very careful when deciding
to take this approach as it can have a negative effect
on employees who may feel that the control is too
strong. This can lead to a lack of trust.
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Content Filtering
5. Hybrid content filtering solution
Often content filtering solutions do not fit only in
some of the categories mention but are a combination
of different filtering solutions.
This can be classified as a “hybrid content filtering
solution”.
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Content Filtering
Future development
• Image filters: This software can accurately depict
the nature of images, allowing for detection of
images of suspect or pornographic nature.
• This can be integrated into content filtering and
email management software.
• Image Filter is one such company offering image
filtering solution that works along side the html
tags of the image to offer real time image filtering.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
Another form of control that needs to be put into
place is an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).
This is a passive form of control that is put in place to
protect employer as well as the employee.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
Every organization, whether an academic institution
profit or non-profit, needs to have an AUP to protect
themselves. Sometimes the AUP is also referred to as
an Internet use policy (IUP) that gives basic
guidelines for the use of online communications
whether on the Internet or through the use of the
organizations local intranet.
A concrete policy is needed to define conditions of
Internet use.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
• Organizations can be held legally responsible for
any illegal content accessed if they do not have a
policy in place.
• Many organizations do not enforce these policies or
regularly remind users of the policies in place.
• It is important that these policies are made
available to employees.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
Ways to make sure your employees understand and
are aware of the AUP in place:
• Make employees sign an agreement ensuring they
will adhere to the AUP in place.
• Place a copy of the AUP in a place where
employees regular convene or a place where it is
highly visible.
• Have a disclaimer when the employee logs onto the
network.
• Conduct regular training on correct usage of the
network and other resources.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
Typical components of an AUP should include:
• what content can be accessed and what material is
forbidden.
• outline what responsibility should be taken towards
content accessed and how it can be used.
• clearly outline who in the organization is allowed
access to online resources (it may not necessary
for everybody to have access to the Internet).
• state the precautions that have been put into place
to prevent the inappropriate use of the Internet.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
• make it clear as to what actions will be taken
against those who break the agreement of the
policy and the seriousness of the crime.
These components are vital for the construction of an
effective AUP. It is important for an organisation to
cover all angles to ensure protection from the law.
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUP’s)
In some legal cases against employers, employers
were saved due to the AUP they had in place.
• Schewenn vs. Anheuser-Busch Inc.
An employee who received sexually harassing email
messages from other employees failed to claim a
hostile work environment because her employer had
an email policy (Overly 2002).
These policies put in place are essential to restrict
any legal liability that an organisation might be
involved in. This includes Internet usage as well as
inappropriate email usage.
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Conclusion
• In society today pornography has a strong
presence, it is important to identify this
and not just ignore it.
• Only once we understand the size and the
online presence of the problem can we try
to minimise the effects it has on the work
place and online environment.
• It is necessary to have an active approach
as well as a passive approach to restrict
access to online pornography.
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References
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Dictionary.com: definition of pornography. 2004. [Online].
Available WWW:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pornography
(Accessed 15/05/05).
Hart et al. 2002. Structural development of Internet selfregulation: Case study of the Internet Content Rating
Association (ICRA). Info 4 (5): 39-55.
Lectric Law Library Lexicon on Obscenity. 2002. [Online].
Available WWW: http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/o002.htm.
(Accessed 21/09/04).
Merrrian Webster Dictionary of Law: definition of pornography.
1996. [Online]. Available WWW:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pornography.
(Accessed 19/09/04).
References
•
•
•
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Overly, M. 2002. Email, adult content and employment law:
Reducing liability with filtering and policy tools. [Online].
Available WWW:
http://www.lonetree.com/nospam/Legal_Liability.pdf (Accessed
10/05/05).
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th
Edition: definition erotic. 2000. [Online]. Available WWW:
http://www.answers.com/topic/erotic (accessed 25/05/05
Witzke. 2002. IntelliBridge Tech Update. [Online]. Available
WWW:
http://www.intellibridgellc.com/pdf/NewsletterJune.July.2002.pdf
(Accessed 25/03/05).