8. Reading: Internet police

 

You're using the computer at work. After a while, you decide to take a break and go shopping-on the Internet. But when you click on your favorite shopping Web site, there's a big red hand on the screen. At the bottom of the screen, you see a warning from your company about unauthorized Web surfing.

So, who put it there? People like Ida Smith. Ms. Smith is a content specialist for a Web-filtering company. She spends her days surfing the Web. She is looking for sites that employers do not want their employees to visit. Her specific task is to find shopping, travel, and gambling sites. These sites are some of the places where employees may waste time at work. Other content specialists look for sites on sex, drugs, and violence. There are 39 categories in all. She also scans white lists-approved sites for children-to make sure that they have no links to naughty sites.

Special spidering programs actually do most of the work. These programs can search millions of pages in just a few minutes. But people like Ms. Smith provide a human review to make sure that pages are not blacklisted or white-listed by mistake.

Ms. Smith enjoys the work. "I love spending time on the Internet. I feel like I'm in touch with what people think and what they're doing:' she says. However, she admits often taking a couple of aspirin when she gets home. "All that surfing gives me a headache," she explains.

 

 

1. She is   employers do not want their employees to visit.

 

2. Other  sites on sex, drugs, and violence.

 

3. "I love spending   . I feel like I'm in touch with what people think and what they're doing:' she says.