District of Columbia Mayor Fenty recently fired nine government employees for viewing Internet porn on a regular basis while at work. Eight of the nine fired employees each accumulated nearly 20,000 adult site hits in 2007 and one had more than 48,000 hits. “This is not just egregious behavior, it’s reprehensible,” Mayor Fenty said at a news conference announcing the results of a citywide probe. The investigation was launched at the end of 2007 after the D.C. Chief Technology Officer received a complaint from an employee about other employees visiting pornographic websites during work hours.
The probe nabbed a small sample of the 50,000 D.C. employees. There was no evidence of child pornography uncovered during the investigation and the employees were not investigated for misuse of email, IM, chat and other forms of e-communications. D.C.’s acting Attorney General said that the cost of looking at other things, such as gambling or other banned personal uses, would have been more costly.
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