In the modern days internet is one of the most important aspect in the businesses world. This is because it is one of the easiest ways of communicating between companies or between employees of the same company at different levels. Therefore, it is important for any company to work on maintaining its internet to be up to date at all times to ensure good and efficient communication between the employees and with clients and other potential companies that might be of great importance to the company (Kutais, 2000). Even though it marks one of the most advanced forms of doing business by providing easy and efficient communication, it is prone to abuse by the company employees and other people that might be having access to the internet (Miller, " Cross, 2013). For this matter, it is important to put some rules and regulations that govern the use of the internet within the company, and the form of communication that can be passed through by the employees to ensure minimal abuse since it is hard to make a rule that can fully eliminate the abuse.
Internet usage at work
Internet has saved a lot in terms of time and workload, at workplace internet have save the employees of staying for long hour in the office. It has been subject of discussion the use of internet by employees for non-work related activities with many people having divergent opinions about the matter (Miller, " Cross, 2013).Most of the people especially employees insists that it is the right of the employee to use the internet at all the time when they are in the office even for the non-work related activities. While the employers have the problem with the issue, they are saying that for private use, the employee should be able to use his/her internet and not during the official working hours (Miller, " Cross, 2013). Even though the two parties have different views on the use of the internet, they converge at one point, which is that the use of internet for private activities during the working hours can really derail the employee’s performance of their duties.
Some of the employees in most company believe that the use of internet for their personal activities is acceptable and that the employer has no right to monitor the usage and even keep on checking the sites that have been visited by the employees. This has nude it very difficult for the employers to be able to control the internet usage in their businesses because sometimes without elaborate monitoring system it is very hard to know how the employees use the internet during the working hours (Radu, 2013).
It is also very difficult with the advancement in the technology that have allowed people to hide the proxy, sites and even use virtual sites to access other sites that are restricted by an internet server, it is then making the monitoring of the internet usage to be impossible at workstations. There have been reports of many torts being committed by employees in using the internet especially during the working hours and by using the work internet for some private activities.
The torts are so many and mostly range from as being liability to the company and sometimes slowing the internet, which would have been used in a faster operation. The torts include, the access of pornographic sires using the work internet. Most of the people in this modern era have been possessed by sex and hence most people like accessing the sex sites at least once a day. However, because at home they have the children they find it easier to access these sites while on job. This results in using the internet of work to access these sites, which is a very serious tort in the commercial world (Reilly, " Brown, 2012).Another tort is the downloading of movies using the internet that is supposed to be used for working, since movies consume many bundles, at the end of the exercises it will be very expensive for the employer because much of the internet bundles would have been used for nonprofit activities.
It therefore, advisable for the employers to have a good and elaborate system of monitoring the employees internet usage to avoid these scams and makes sure that all the employees does not use the internet for their own businesses and personal activities that does not contribute to the work environment. By doing that, the employees would be more effacement and have more time to do their work without failing or making excuses (Radu, 2013). In addition, the step can also save a lot in terms of the company expenditure in the internet and other factors of its functionalities.
The monitoring should be done by putting a reliable server that will be checking the internet usage by the employees and monitoring the contents pf the sites accessed by every employee during the working hours and throughout the day. The server should also be modified in such a way that it blocks all the sites that are not needed by the company so that no employee can be able to access them. Disciplinary actions should be taken against any employee caught going against the company internet laws and this would help in minimizing the wastage of the internet and the working hours.
Limitations
One of the abuses by the employee is the access of the social sites with the internet at the work place, social site is not a problem but accessing it at the expense of the work is illegal and is punishable by law(Kutais, 2000). This is because, one is paid as per the work delivery of the individual and if the individual accesses internet instead of work it turns to be fraud by taking the money from the employer during the payment period.
Another limitation of the use of the use of the internet is the accessing of sites that have larger bandwidth, hence, wasting bundles on unproductive activities. People have the tendency of accessing visual things from the internet, the visual things always use internet at very high rates. The policy should also clearly state the actions that must be taken against any employee found going against these rules. by doing this, it is possible that abuse to the internet can be greatly minimized and hence increasing the production in any business. This is because; in most cases, these activities derail employees from performing their duties and hence tantamount to great time wasting.
Restrictions
The restrictions are always put by the employers and in most cases they are not very effective, especially the use of the server to block different sites that are not work related, has been very ineffective with the advancement of the technology. Some technological activities has been able to bring up the ways of bypassing these server proxies and hence making it very simple to access the prohibited sites by employees even during the working hours(Radu, 2013). Therefore, the restriction should incorporate both the written memo and server restrictions so that anyone found by the tort can face the consequences of the action as specified by the company laws.
Privacy and access
In every company, the internet should be only accessible to the employees of the company and with the company identified internet accessories only. This is to avoid usage of the company internet by other people who are not employees of the company and hence does not contribute to the company at all. To make sure this is practiced the company internet should have a unique password cord that is only known by the company employees of already installed and fitted with the company equipment so that no any other new material, without passing through the IT department can access the internet (Kutais, 2000).
Laws
The introduction of the internet and other technological advancements in the 21st century has come with some crimes. Because of this hitch in this advancements, there must be laws that govern the people so that these crimes can be minimized of eliminated is possible. The laws should be made in such a way that it entails all the form of crime that results from these activities. The crimes can be categorized into two namely; white-collar crimes and blues collar crimes (Miller, " Cross, 2013).
The white-collar crimes are the form of crimes that are used and design to bring some form of financial gains to an individual without working for the financial gain. The gains are always got through deception to an individual. Most of the cases of white collar crimes are found in the business world where people use their position that allows them to access large sums of money from other and hence easily use their influences and know how to deceive other people so that they can have the financial gain at the end of it all(Miller," Cross, 2013).White-collar crimes are mostly done in the internet, and hence the restriction and monitoring of the internet use in a company can greatly minimize this type of crime and protect the name of the business.
Monitoring
Monitoring of the internet usage in a company is the following of the site and activities of every individual in the internet throughout the day. It is very important to monitor the internet usage by the employees because it helps in locating the knowing how the employees use the internet and hence can help in formulating internet policies in a company (Miller, " Cross, 2013). Employees are always very reluctant to accept the policy of monitoring their activities in the internet but it is the best policy to eliminated especially time wasting during the working times. Another policy should also be to close sites that are not necessary in the workstation so that the employee cannot access them using the internet of work. It is also ethical to educate the employees of how to handle the internet and make sure that they are safe users of the internet and this can really help in eradicating the internet abuse by the employees.
References
1. Kutais, B. G. (2000). Internet policies and issues. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
2. Miller, R. L. R., " Cross, F. B. (2013). The legal environment today: Business in its ethical, regulatory, e-commerce, and global setting. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.
3. Radu, R. C. (2013). The evolution of global internet governance: Principles and policies in the making. Zürich: Schultess.
4. Reilly, F., " Brown, K. (2012). Investment analysis and portfolio management (10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western/ Cengage Learning.
