It’s all the rage this social networking. You really would think that DOD employees, both civilian and military, have enough to do without nearly shutting down the military information resources at the Pentagon. According to a recent report by SHRM Online supposedly these sites and the site usage is eating up these resources.
As Rita Zeidner says in the article it’s not unusual for employers to block employee Internet access. She goes on to quote the Robert Half International survey of chief information officers that says their companies have installed content-filtering or blocking software or have instituted policies that detail acceptable web browsing, or both.
The article also goes on to say many employers also use the kind of blocking software DOD has installed to prevent workers from accessing pornography or other materials that might offend some employees and lead to a sexual harassment lawsuit. Well that’s a good idea too.
It just puzzles me as to why DOD has to justify the use of blocking software or in some way prove it’s not aimed at restricting employee’s free speech rights. What critics are asserting this at DOD or outside of DOD? I mean we have men and women deployed all over the world and some in the highest degree of combat. Look at the news daily at the risks, lives lost and people at risk. Unless the DOD people are monitoring social networking sites by soldiers or anyone else to ensure the safety of soldiers or our US personnel/interests then I don’t know why they need to upload pics of the beer blast they had in Arlington over the weekend. Do that on your own time please. Or worse, what are they trolling for? I just hope it’s of age dates.
Look I am all for free speech but I say amen to access denied for DOD folks. Do all of our patriots in the field a favor and work on getting all the resources they need. Spend your time protecting us. Protect them. Make sure they remain safe. Only allow the flow of legitimate information. No one at DOD during their shift should be searching for or downloading IPOD stuff from their Facebook or MySpace buddy.