Employee net abuse is becoming an increasing concern and has sparked off quite a big business in trying to prevent it and a number of companies actually use monitoring software to track internet usage (seems to me a better approach than someone walking past the screen...).

As for the rights and wrongs, clearly it is the employer's equipment, time, money and also security risks and I feel that all employers should have a clearly defined acceptable usage policy that employees should adhere to.

Not all employers will wish to ban all internet usage on their own equipment. It could be argued for example that allowing an employee to browse the web during breaks helps good relations, reduces the temptation for employees to just to browse at any old time during work and is effectively more productive than the complete ban.

Jon