13 WTHRState installs filters to block employee access to porn sites

State installs filters to block employee access to porn sites

Indianapolis - Access denied. That's the message to state employees looking to steal a peak at internet sex sites on the taxpayer dime. Indiana technology officials have installed filters on 27,000 state computers in an internet crackdown.

Indiana government officials have discovered state employees aren't always clicking or linking to internet sites with state business in mind.

"We did see some use of the internet for some pretty nasty stuff," said Chris Cotterill, Indiana Office of Technology.

Some employees were viewing pornography on the state's dime. It's against state policy and some of it bordered on criminal. In an effort to filter out the filth, the Office of Technology is now blocking access to porn sites for 27,000 state computers.

"When we saw child pornography and hits on that and general pornography and hits on that -- those were the ones that we reported to the agencies," said Cotterill.

Eyewitness News has learned eight employees from three different agencies were caught abusing their internet privileges. At Workforce Development, one employee resigned. At the Department of Transportation, two employees were suspended. At the Department of Environmental Management, a total of five employees violated policy. Two were suspended and three employees were fired.

"If you're that silly then you deserve what you get because this is business," said Monica Partlow, Workforce Development.

"Any organization where people who occasionally have some free time and they have access it's not too surprising that they will wonder off into sites where they shouldn't be," said Dale Sedler, INDOT.

The filters costs the state $166,000. Officials say it's well worth the price to keep state employees from heading the wrong way.

"Our lowest bid was about $166,000 which is the one we went with. The highest bid was about three quarters of a million dollars. This ends up costing a quarter per state employee per month," said Cotterill.

Right now only porn sites are blocked, but the state may consider filtering out hate and terrorists sites as well. The state Employees Association says it supports the restrictions.

Now if employees try to access porn on your taxpayer dime, they'll get a notification page saying, "Sorry, you can't go there."