News about Internet-enabled child pornography is rampant today. It seems you can't watch TV news without another startling arrest story, followed by an interview with an expert about how to keep your children safe while online.

It's great that parents are learning more about how to protect their young from predators. Today, however, I want to talk about how employers can protect themselves from predators and how they can protect the stupid predators from themselves.

In March, a program executive in NASA's Washington, D.C., headquarters was accused of using his office computer (as well as his home computer) to send and receive child pornography. You can read the detailed allegations of wrongdoing in the affidavit for a search warrant. According to the document, the alleged perpetrator used a fake name to exchange e-mails containing inappropriate materials. Although he tried to hide his identity, his static IP addresses pointing to his home and office were strong clues for the investigators. When the computers were searched, sure enough, the contraband files were discovered.

To its credit, NASA helped finger the guy when Web content filter logs showed that pornographic Web sites (identified by IP address) were being viewed from the man's office computer. In addition, NASA's skin-tone filtering system detected that pornographic materials were being viewed on the employee's PC.

A similar case involves an assistant principal at a New York high school who recently pleaded guilty to using his workstation at school to download and trade pornography. He also admitted soliciting underage girls for sex. Yet another recent case points to a deputy press secretary from the Department of Homeland Security - you guessed it - downloading porn and soliciting young girls.

These men are sick; there's no doubt about that. They deserve to be arrested and removed from our society through lengthy jail terms. I'm just grateful we have the technology today to monitor and trace the activities of people like this.

Which brings me to the point I want to make: Technology is a tool that can help protect us all. I am including employers in my definition of "us."

According to Websense, a vendor of Web security and filtering software, 70% of porn is downloaded between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. What's more, 37% of at-work Internet users in the United States have visited an X-rated Web site from work; 25% of all search-engine requests are porn related. These statistics seem to show that employees like the fast office connection that allows them to view or download inappropriate materials in less time than it would take at home.