There are all kinds of programs out there that let you monitor your employees’ Internet use. I won’t list any of their names so I don’t give them any free publicity…if you think you need them, they are easy enough to find. Plenty of firms have policies regarding Internet use on company time, and those policies are getting stricter all the time. The question is: why?

What might your employees be doing that does not seem related to their job? Well, checking out blogs (like this one, hopefully) or reading newspapers from Spain might seem unnecessary (unless you live in Spain, of course). They might be keeping in touch with friends through Facebook, IMs, Twitter, or some other way that they can tell each other how horribly busy they are avoiding work. Maybe they are just doing a little shopping…it’s no secret the Monday after Thanksgiving in the US was the biggest online shopping day of the year, once people return to the office.

But you need to consider the role of the Net in your business. Don’t just think about the traditional uses in your field; consider too how these seemingly personal activities might help you. Your employees can find inspiration and information in lots of different areas you might not think of, so blocking entire categories of sites will probably keep them from viewing something they could really use. Anyone working in any sort of knowledge creation or research will need access to a range of stuff that most people might not.

One example: a few years ago the US Secretary of Defense lectured a group of Air Force officers about the need to think creatively about counterinsurgency warfare. But around the same time the Air Force instituted a policy that restricted Air Force computers from accessing any website with “blog” in the URL. So anything on Blogger, for instance was blocked, including such things as all those blogs written by people on the ground in places like Iraq and Afghanistan who might have some pretty good ideas about things like, oh, counterinsurgency warfare. The military already had some strict limits on blogging in a war zone so as to not give away information useful to an enemy, but what security purpose is satisfied by blocking military people from receiving that information? Telling people to think outside the box and then cutting their access to the world outside of the box doesn’t make a lot of sense.

As you ask yourself “why do I care what they do online?” remember there are some things you should be worried about, things that will definitely hurt your company. Illegal activity, of course, can leave you liable since it’s happening over your network. Viruses and other malicious code can screw up more than just the first computer it hits. And of course, you lose out on productivity when bandwidth gets used up, shared drives are filled with downloaded movies, and employees spend all their time doing something other than work.

There are some ways to address these concerns, mostly through putting the responsibility back onto the employee. Have a written agreement with them that limits your claim of responsibility and allows them to accept responsibility for appropriate use of the Internet. Perhaps include a clause where they acknowledge that illegal activity on their part is grounds for firing. If you see legal-but-annoying problems emerge, talk directly with the employee rather than creating company-wide policies. I guess the bottom line is, try trusting your employees and see how that works.

But you need to look at more than just potential problems…you need to consider what the true output is. If your employees are doing good work, if they are putting in a lot of effort despite doing their Christmas shopping at the office, then what benefit do you get from shutting that off? Is employees’ Net usage really eating up your capacity or causing you to miss deadlines? Don’t make something into a problem if it is not a problem, and though you should try to nip potential problems in the bud, avoid restricting the entire company because of a few individuals. Save the “Net Nanny” programs for your kids, not your adults.