porn in the workplace

NaeNae55

I just read the article in this week's HR Hero Line about the company getting sued by the employee's wife for allowing him to upload pornographic pictures of her daughter. She says if they had followed their policies and procedures the employee would not have had the opportunity to upload the pictures. Plus, if they had bothered to look at the sites they would have known he was looking at child porn and have had him arrested. She says this would have avoided any harm to her daughter.

First, let me point out that I am outraged by the employee's behavior. I don't have words that are strong enough to tell of my disgust. But that is not why I am posting. I have a question.

How many of you would actually go out and look at the porn sites? If the company followed its policy the employee would have been long gone before he uploaded those pictures. I know that is what we would have done. But I have to admit a list of the porn sites would have been enough for me. I wouldn't have gone out to actually look at them. Perhaps I need to rethink things.

Do you make sure someone actually looks at the sites, or is simply a list of the employee viewing them on company time/property enough?


Nae

Paul in Cannon Beach

In general, simply a list of porn sites is sufficient. On one occassion, there was some concern that the site involved children. Myself and another manager checked it out and determined that it was "teen" related but did not involve children.

When I first read the description of the case it sounded ludicrous. The more I think about it, its possible she may be able to make her case.

In my view, the point of an internet policy is to protect the company and prohibit misuse of company property and employee time. Protecting kids is a worthy goal but its not why organizations create these kinds of policies. Can you hold them liable for something that is not their responsibility?

atrimble

One of my "hats" is Computer Information Specialist, in addition to all my HR stuff. I am expected to confirm managerial suspicions of Internet use abuse. Our policy prohibits all pornography, but if someone somehow finds a website that isn't blocked by our server-based filter program, chances are that a red-flag name isn't going to appear on a list of sites visited, so someone has to go in and LOOK. We had a possible child porn issue with a non-employee semi-public computer lab, and along with our male security officer, I had to view the sites in preparation for any kind of criminal prosecution. We were never able to identify the perp/perv, though, so it didn't go anywhere.

Can you imagine being REQUIRED to view this stuff as a part of your job? When does my right to file harrassment charges come into play?