Officials from the state departments of Health and Social Services said their employees are clearly alerted to their responsibilities under the law. The Health Department put a rule in place after the law passed in 1995, and the Social Services Department's sexual harassment policy now prohibits its employees from viewing sexual material online without permission.
James Burns, deputy commissioner for public health programs, oversees the state employees responsible for tracking the spread of STDs in Virginia. Burns said the STD staff must occasionally "make a conscious decision" to go online to monitor sexually active communities that congregate online.
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"They're not looking at pornographic sites, they're looking at sites that relate to sexually related behavior. It has a clearly work-related purpose," Burns said. But he added that employees know not to pursue those investigations without getting the green light from above.
Burns said the department doesn't go on "witch hunts" to find people violating the rule, but has disciplined employees found viewing inappropriate material. He said the law hasn't been a problem for his employees, and that the process for getting permission to look at a questionable site would not deter them from pursuing an investigation.
Robert Mason works under Burns as the assistant director of outbreak response for the Virginia Epidemiology Response Team. When one of his investigators needs to venture into a sexually themed chat room to follow the source of an STD outbreak, Mason said he gives them permission very quickly. "All of our investigations work on a timetable. They've got to make all the proper decisions and moves right away, they're using all the tools at their disposal."
The Virginia State Police are exempt from the law, but social services workers, who investigate cases of family abuse, are not.
Social Services clearly prohibits its employees from viewing, storing or transmitting sexually explicit material over the Internet, spokesman Charles Ingram said, asserting that it's never been an obstacle for the department's investigators. Those workers would be expected to ask permission before visiting any questionable sites, Ingram added.
"If it's something they have to do and its part of their job to do that investigative research, we'd probably have to grant them that permission," Ingram said.
And while the law clearly applies to all state workers, it hasn't appeared to trigger much in the way of outrage away from the academic setting.
Charles Smith represents state health workers, office employees and blue-collar laborers on behalf of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees' Virginia chapter. He said he's never had to defend a worker who's been targeted under the law. He said state employees across the country tend to accept limitations on their Internet use as part of their job.
