Just when we thought the plot could not get any thicker, the Associated Press released an article last Thursday revealing yet another shocking piece of the financial crisis puzzle.

It would seem that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government entity that is supposedly the watchdog of the American financial industry, has some dirty laundry to air. 

Rather than keeping an eye on our economy as it tanked almost irreparably, SEC officials were busy taking in the myriad stimuli at sites such as “naughty.com” and “youporn.”
Appallingly, senior staff members at the SEC were paid government money (up to $222,000 per year) to protect our economy from collapsing.  Instead, they spent hours looking at pornography on government-issued computers.

And these are not simply a few isolated incidents—more than 30 employees were involved on all levels. Some even amassed their own personal pornographic libraries, keeping collections in files on their work computers or in boxes around their offices. One senior attorney even spent up to eight hours a day downloading pornography, backing up the images on CDs when he ran out of space.   

This incident epitomizes the flagrant neglect that has characterized our country’s financial system over the past decade.  While I know nearly nothing about economics, I do know that downloading pornography would not likely aid in monitoring the country’s economy. 

Where is the remorse?  Why is there no accountability?

Before we decide to storm the proverbial Bastille, we first must consider the issue from yet another angle, perhaps the one seemingly obvious question that has been thus far neglected by the news: why would someone feel the need to spend eight hours a day looking at pornography, on the government clock or otherwise?

Data released on this issue in the past has estimated that anywhere between one in three to one in five employees accessed pornography from their office computers. According to Newsweek, hits at pornographic websites are higher from 9-5 than at any other point in the day. What about our culture has made it permissible to fill our minds with such destructive material?

There is no question that looking at pornography is destructive to relationships. It objectifies both women and men. It reduces sex to something base and dirty. Why is our nation’s addiction to pornography not higher on our agenda?

I am not sure whether or not it is an urban legend, but a friend once told me that during World War II, a German strategy to weaken the minds of American men was to provide them with pornography.  Although I have doubts about the truth of this story, I think the message is nevertheless important. Yes, we should hold government employees accountable for wasting our time and putting our economy at risk. 

But more importantly, we should hold ourselves accountable to higher standards and put an end to this epidemic.

Rebecca Quinn is a junior art history, Spanish and French triple major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].