At work, we’ve had access to various innocuous websites banned with no explanation. It’s really irritating. What’s the point?

Some of us may envy our friends’ salaries, pension provision or holiday entitlement, but they in turn may jealously covet our ability to access personal email or cricket scores during working hours. “The restrictions here are ridiculous,” moans Kath S. “Gmail and Hotmail are blocked, along with Yahoo, MySpace, eBay, any online stores and any pages featuring sport.” But at least Kath has some internet access, however meagre; Steph Ashley recalls her previous job, where “everything except the company’s own site was blacklisted. On a quiet day, you’d stare out of the window or doodle on a notepad.” Our correspondents’ tales of banned pages range from pictures of an employee’s new-born baby (“she tried to reason with the IT dept, to no avail”) to horoscopes (“it’s classed as occult religion”). What’s with these arbitrary restrictions? As one anonymous IT worker confesses, “they make the internet less useful, and employees less happy.”

“Content filtering has 3 aims,” explains Tom Sulston. “Stopping viruses reaching company networks, reducing the risk of the company being sued for computer misuse, and combating timewasting.” This is generally done with generic software packages such as SurfControl, which incorporate various filtering techniques, including blacklists (pages that have been deemed unsuitable, or perhaps can only be accessed for a limited time per day), keyword filtering (which, in its most zealous form, may deny access to sites mentioning, say, the words Essex or Middlesex) and systems that analyse the amount of naked flesh in image files. Of course, few people would try to justify accessing hardcore pornography during lunchtime, but the biggest gripe appears to be banning access to personal email. Ang Rosin understands the frustration: “I used to think this was draconian until I started working as a system administrator; I then realised how clueless supposedly savvy computer users can be.” While it would be easy for a member of staff to say “well, I won’t download an email attachment and spread the virus through the office network”, sadly it does happen, and it’s something workplaces will try and safeguard against.

Many correspondents have been warned for excessive internet use, and a couple have been sacked. “I knew my time was nearly up,” writes Jenny, “when they even banned me from charging up my iPod at work.” Some correspondents with unfettered web access say that they wouldn’t take a job somewhere with such restrictive policies, but escaping these posts can prove tricky, writes Pippa Chisholm. “In my previous job, any sites with job adverts were banned, and our emails were scanned for the word ‘CV’.” Some online tasks are clearly best left until you get home.

Next week’s question is from Glen Pearson: “I’ve just bought an album for just over $1 from a Russian mp3 site. It claims to be legal, but it seems to good to be true. What’s the catch?”