There are far too many abuses when you allow employees access to social networking.
Take for example a car dealer. The ladies and sales people get on social networking but the body shop mechanics aren't allowed equal time. This is blatant discrimination to say the least.

Why should any employer allow a typical employee to be paid to skylark or even malinger while on the employer's dime?

If I were a large employer I would most certainly block anything that had no direct relationship (in my SOLE opinion) to the employee's job.

People are desperate for a job so the 'cool' company theory is out the door. They goof off and steal time from the company then there are at least 1,000 others who would gladly take the job and NOT violate or abuse the company policy nor waste the employer's time.

You are paid to do your job, not promote anything. That job belongs to whomever the employer pays specifically to do that (marketing division and only things related to the company).

Playing online games or gossiping about your sex life or other non business communication should be grounds for immediate (INSTANT) termination.
Doing that is the exact same thing as stealing from the employer.

How many of you would be happy if your local public servant (police, fire, trash man, etc) decided to take off sick while getting paid for it and go shopping or golfing or whatever especially when you needed them to do their jobs??
That is an abuse of the system and theft from the employer.
The private sector is no different.

Typically women are the ones in the position to seriously abuse the internet with social networking since most of them are at a computer terminal.

Go ahead and allow them to use social networking and not allow others who do not have regular access to social networking to have the same time and access to the services and see if you don't open yourself up to lawsuits.

And you should definitely be taken to the cleaners for discrimination.

Best is to never allow an employee access to social networking unless your specific job entails ONLY social networking marketing and specific research.

The above list the author posted for this thread is absurd. They want to justify outright theft by trying to rationalize employee abuses of their job.

Only those whose jobs do not specifically require access to social networking will want that access. This is because they are dishonest and plain old thieves.

That's a thought. Stealing internet from your employer should land the employee in jail just as if they stole money out of the account or register. Stealing is stealing and it is wrong.