SALEM, Ore. -- The Oregon Lottery's new policy on the use of office computers is among the strictest in state government.

The agency's 400 employees are barred from going online for personal business. They can't check personal e-mail, load music into their disk drives or even post photos on their computers.

As people spend more of their lives on computers -- and work longer and longer hours -- employers in the public and private sectors are trying to figure out the appropriate rules for Internet use. In state government alone, individual agencies have adopted vastly different policies.

Many private companies let workers bank, shop, read the news and send and receive personal e-mail, figuring anything less would make it difficult to attract and retain workers accustomed to life on the Web.

Those policies sometimes backfire, such as when employees view pornography or spend more time surfing than working. But Judy Clark, the CEO and president of HR Answers, said the Lottery's rules might also backfire.

"It's going to create such a strict, restricted kind of environment that it will not serve to retain employees," she said. "It could feel unwelcome, lacking in warmth, not flexible, not receptive or responsive to today's work environment."

Lottery spokeswoman Mary Loftin told The Oregonian newspaper that the change was made to keep the computer system clear of corruption. Workers can use public terminals in the lunchroom during breaks if they want to conduct personal business.

"We're a security agency, and our integrity and our security are what this agency is all about," she said.

The Oregon Department of Revenue also sharply limits online browsing. It took that stance after an employee inadvertently infected a computer in 2006 and the agency had to inform 2,500 taxpayers that their private information might have been breached.

"At first, it was difficult," spokeswoman Rosemary Hardin said. "People were used to, during their breaks and on their lunch hour, checking their e-mail and having a certain amount of freedom."

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has gone in the opposite direction. Workers were so annoyed with strict rules that their union took up the issue with Roy Elicker when he became director last year.

Elicker relaxed the restrictions.

The workplace was bleaker under the old policy, said Bill Kinyoun, the department's assistant district wildlife biologist in Charleston and vice president of the local union.

"A lot of our lives are spent in the workplace, and we couldn't even have a picture of a newborn child," he said.