Inappropriate Content

[susans]

Have you ever caught anyone at work with "inappropriate" content on their computer?

[Katie G]

Not personally, but my previous department did end up dismissing someone for it.  As a university, the overall policies were a bit looser than you might find in a traditional corporate environment (in the name of research).  The person ended up downloading a virus or something that spread through the network and when IT chased it down....bingo.  I think he was shocked at how quickly he was caught and how quickly he was dismissed over it.

[spitfire78]

No.  But I will say that myself and several of my co-workers all accidentally had things pop up on our screens that were totally inappropriate.  We were doing business-related internet work.  My one co-worker was practically hysterical, because somehow a porn site popped up while she was doing an internet search and the darn thing was set so that you couldn't close it down.  She was frantically hitting the close button (and just about every other button on the computer) and it just wouldn't go away.  She was practically in tears, scared to death that someone would walk into the office at that time.  We were all hanging over her shoulder trying to help.  Fortunately, we got her out of it before anyone else happened along.  

I had something come up on me when I went into a perfectly legit site (again work-related).  Every time I clicked on close, it merely took me to a new screen.  Very frustrating.  Fortunately, I got out of it a lot easier than the above example.

I haven't heard of anyone in my company who was caught with it after deliberately accessing it.  Certainly I'm sure it has happened, I just haven't been "in the loop".

[msmarieh]

I haven't but I know of at least one employee that was fired for it at a prior company.

Marie

[jodith]

Just a piece of advice for when this happens.  Notify IT immediately, so if it shows up in their filters, they don't think you've been surfing.

A lot of porn sites buy up domains that are similar to very popular domains to catch people if they typo or forget the spelling of the name.  So it's entirely likely you or your coworker typo'd the url you were trying to reach and got a porn site.  It's usually no big deal, but just in case, let IT know immediately in case it comes up in any reports.

Jodith

[jodith]

Post deleted by Jackie just because it was the same as above, nothing serious!

Edited by jackie on 10/04/08 01:01 PM.

[itsme_calista]

I haven't fortunately, it has happened within the company though, the person discovering decided that it wasn't something to trouble the PA with and went straight to bossie.

We have strong filters on our internet though and most sites are blocked using various key words, we can't get any radio stations through the pcs (although we all have radios in our offices!!), can't access any adult content sites, no ebay, amazon, social networking sites. I can only get a select few online newspapers.

I'm actually very surprised that Deskdemon hasn't been stopped, boss has already okayed it with me, but IT are a bit heavy handed at times.

[raindance]

Someone was caught with such content on their work computer a few years ago in my company.  She (yes, she!) wasn't dismissed but a disciplinary meeting took place, a report lies on file to this day of that  person and it has never happened again.  

We do have strong filters on our system, but it is amazing how things can creep under the wire.

[gee4]

We are very restricted here Susan.  Most people only have internet if it is required for their job, so filters are put in place regarding our access limits and what sites we can browse.