Media over-hyping spam's porno problem

Anti-spam vendor Clearswift is blaming the media for over-hyping the problem of pornographic emails.

According to Clearswift, some media companies, which it does not name, have been claiming that between 60 and 80 per cent of spam is made up of pornography and are deliberately scaremongering.

Clearswift puts the total closer to 20 per cent.

Your super-soar-away, in no-way sensational, silicon.com is actually conscience clear here. We have always put the total at sub-20 per cent. However, even that is concerning and represents a real worry for parents and businesses.

The problems for parents are well-documented but companies are being warned of the more financially grievous threat of litigation. The risk is that employees may hold them liable if they are exposed to offensive material on a company network.

In the same way staff might protest against pornography being posted on the walls, so staff may consider the bosses are liable for what appears on the network, given the fore-warning and the availability of spam filtering technology.

Speaking to silicon.com last month Martino Corbelli, Martino Corbelli, marketing director for filtering software firm SurfControl, said: "Some of these spam emails have completely inappropriate content which can create serious problems for the employer on a legal basis.

"There may be somebody who feels they should be protected from pornographic content, for example, and in some cases they may be prepared to sue their employer if they feel they are being exposed to offensive material on the company's network."