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Either they've had some slow news days in the fisheries world, or staff members aren't enjoying much of a social life because, on average, each employee visits a sex-related Web site seven times a day.

Obtained under Canada's Access to Information Act, the survey is based on research conducted in 1998. It concludes that at least 10 percent of department Internet traffic is not work-related in any way. In addition to sex-crazed employees, the survey also found mismanagement of funds relating to computers and technology. But let's face it. Sweaty, red-blooded fisheries workers clicking furiously at their computers, hearts pounding with surreptitious lust: Isn't that what we want to hear more about?

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The detailed survey of Internet use found that, for one week, employees' visits to sex and dating Web sites averaged about 70,000 hits per day. The most popular sites among the sex-surfers were video games, sports, and the Holy Grail of Canadian fisheries workers -- the explicit live teen site, which advertises the "horniest teens on the Net!" With all this surfing, who's got time to monitor the rainbow smelt population? Or eat lunch, for that matter?

Authors of the survey conclude that the results raise serious questions about overall productivity in the department. Fisheries employees have since been warned about inappropriate use of the Internet and, if caught, face a reprimand or even lose their job. The Liveteen.com folks can now expect less traffic from Canada, because the department has blocked some of the offensive sites. But as with cancer, pet rabbits and automotive rust, porn sites just keep multiplying and spreading. Paul Hession, head of the department's information technology division, admits that with so much available porn, enforcement is a problem.

"There are so many of them that it is virtually impossible to apply the blocking technology to all of them," Hession told the Vancouver Sun. "They pop up all the time, and there's a risk they can be accessed."

A new department policy that limits Internet use has apparently cut down on the visits to sex sites, but no surveys have yet been conducted. The impact of porn surfing upon Newfoundland's Task Force on Fish/Crab Price Settlement has yet to be determined.
salon.com | April 26, 2000

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