Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Porn Surfing Epidemic at NSF

The National Science Foundation distributes billions of dollars in scientific research grants. A report in The Washington Times indicates that investigations of employee misconduct -- ostensibly to uncover grant fraud and misspent tax dollars -- grew sixfold last year when cases of porn access by workers began to surface. Pat Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), tells OneNewsNow that in one case, a senior executive spent 331 days accessing pornography on his government computer, often chatting with women who disrobed, before he was discovered.

"But when he was finally detected, he gave a 'humanitarian' defense for his actions," Trueman shares. "He said that many of these women who are posing are poor women, and he was helping them make a living."

The cost to taxpayers is estimated as high as $58,000 in this one situation. After being outed, that senior executive retired, according to the Times. The U.S. inspector general was shocked at the number of cases of porn surfing, and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is looking into it.

Trueman suggests some form of financial penalty would be appropriate. "In my mind, the people who are involved in this porn surfing at work on the government dole should [not only] be fired but also have to pay back the money for the time they spent online looking at pornography," he states.

According to the newspaper report, the investigation overwhelmed the agency. "They actually had to take inspectors off the effort to detect fraud and put them on the effort to detect those who are downloading and looking at pornography at work," Trueman explains.

The ADF attorney says he was surprised to learn that the computers are not filtered -- but adds that porn access at work is not a problem isolated to the government and really is indicative of what is going on throughout America. In fact, he says, it reflects where America is spiritually.

From here.

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