child pornography

Green

If we discover that an employee is using company computer during work time to log onto what appears to us to be a child pornography chat room or to meet someone (as you can see we're not too savy about this stuff), are obligated to report it to the police?

Paul in Cannon Beach

My recommendation is that you first review your organizational policy on employee use of company computers.

Next, document what you have seen before the employee can erase his or her tracks. Either print out the pages, save them on your computer, or write out what websites were accessed.

Next, before you accuse someone of something like this it would be helpful if you could determine the exact nature of the websites being accessed. I once had a manager call me because she was worried that an ee was looking at child porn. The websites were x-rated but they weren't child porn. They did contain "links" to "teen sites" but there was no evidence that the employee was visiting those sites. He was brought in and counseled.

If you do determine that the employee was accessing a website that had child porn or was attempting to contact children, I would contact your local police.

My thinking is that you need to move slowly with this. Its a very serious charge to make and you should take precautions that you don't jump to conclusions.

That said, if this employee has made contact with a child and possibly set up a meeting, it is crucial that the police are notified right away.

FrayWitzer

This is a *very* timely question. Although the Massachusetts Courts have not yet addressed this question directly, a New Jersey court recently held that an employer who was on notice that one of their employees *might* have been accessing child pornography had a duty to investigate further and to report the matter to police. The decision is controversial and is likely to be challenged but what is very clear is that this situation requires the immediate involvement of employment counsel.

Evan

Tony Kessler

The case that Evan points out has been covered in several state Employment Law Letters. Search the newsletter archives for "pornography" in "All States" in "2006," and links to four articles about the case will pop up near the top of the list. The New Jersey Employment Law Letter article about the case is titled, "Illegal activity in the workplace -- you had better report it." The case was complicated by the fact that the employee was reportedly sharing nude pictures of his own 10-year-old stepdaughter via the company computer and, not too surprisingly, got tangled up in a messy divorce. tk

Tony Kessler, director of editorial
M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC
(615) 661-0249 ext. 8068

VS

Great advice from all above. We had an employee viewing child porn on company time/computer. It was detected via our software we use to monitor employees' internet sites that they visit. I do not know if the local police were called or if the FBI discovered this, but this employee was fired and the FBI confiscated the computer.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Just remember to search the NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES not google.com or you will get totally different results...