Keeping Quiet Just Like in the Old Days...

[uniqueone]

I have nothing against porn on occasion. I'm not one who would forbid a boyfriend to ever look at it...and never have. I DO think it's become too widespread, however, and is distorting and grotesqueing the portrayal of sex to greater and greater extremes. In general though, I think it can be used as entertainment and has it's place.

 

That said.....at work there have been people doing things on their computers that, without any doubt, are pornagraphic such as visiting porn websites and downloading porn videos.

 

The network that we're on supports more than one company and all are owned by the same person. The network is run by one of the companies. The people who have been doing the porn-related actiivties work for other companies on that network. Everyone is in the same building.

 

What bothers me is not just that they let this get by but the attitude of a few male coworkers today just got to me. One of them said to me that it's the matter of them using work computers and bandwidth rather than the content of the sites they're getting into. I said I disagreed.

 

Then, I thought about it for a minute and I remembered that one of the videos that I ran across portrayed a girl who looked like she was 15 years old so I told him that content DOES too matter when you're dealing with videos of underage girls. His response was "oh you're such a prude!"

 

I really felt disgusted at that moment. I looked at him increduously and said "Don't you have a daughter???" Then he said he was just joking. These two guys think this is no big deal. And if you say anything about it....well then you're a prude.

 

You know.....for all the time I've been in the workforce, I've dealt with a lot of this attitude and I really thought that it would have come further than this by now in the year 2007.

 

I went to go talk to a woman who works there and told her that I guess I'll just keep quiet. I'll stop trying to get them to do something about it...to take action. I'll just let it slide instead of fighting it because when I try to fight it, I'm called a "prude".

 

Oh and there's more to this soap opera too but this is the part that made me so fed up today. I guess women haven't come all that far in the workplace.

[woodsfield]

I have nothing against porn on occasion. I'm not one who would forbid a boyfriend to ever look at it...and never have. I DO think it's become too widespread, however, and is distorting and grotesqueing the portrayal of sex to greater and greater extremes. In general though, I think it can be used as entertainment and has it's place.

 

 

it has gotten outta hand, but sex sells.

 

for the guys at work looking at it, that's a little ridiculous. i can't say i'm innocent, but that was also some years ago and i was a bit different then, and never looked at "videos".

 

i mean, i actually had the president of one company send an email about a "canoe trip" that at the end showed a picture of the guide, who was a native in "native" attire.

 

surfing in general while on the clock is against most company policies and they tend to lose lots of money because of it. but watching porn is just wrong, unless you have a private office where you can actually "use it", which is a WHOLE 'nother thang entirely!

[uniqueone]

I have no problem with people surfing as long as it's not in excess, but this was way more than any company should tolerate. And if there ARE underage girls on there....they could risk big trouble.

[curiousnycgirl]

I cannot imagine that a company of any size still allows that to go on in the workplace. In my Firm it is an offense that results in immediate termination.

 

The company is at risk for some serious harrassment issues, as well as putting the network (of apparently several companies) at risk.

 

Not sure what I would recommend doing, but that type of stuff is simply no longer tolerated in most of corporate america.

[woodsfield]

I have no problem with people surfing as long as it's not in excess, but this was way more than any company should tolerate. And if there ARE underage girls on there....they could risk big trouble.

 

isn't that illegal even to watch in this country?

 

sometimes, we ALL need a "little" surf time.

 

also...i'm no computer geek, but there are filters or whatever for servers that can block entrance into any of those sites and those blocks can be logged, or so i've heard.

[uniqueone]

I cannot imagine that a company of any size still allows that to go on in the workplace. In my Firm it is an offense that results in immediate termination.

 

The company is at risk for some serious harrassment issues, as well as putting the network (of apparently several companies) at risk.

 

Not sure what I would recommend doing, but that type of stuff is simply no longer tolerated in most of corporate america.

 

I know. I tried to tell them that. Problem is two of the offenders were managers and one was related to the owner so my boss didn't want to make waves.

 

I said "Look...you go to the other managers/owner and say "how do you want porn handled". Chances are they'll say it should be reported to the person's manager. Then he should ask them "What if it IS a manager?" and get their response to that. THEN he should ask them "What if it is a manager at one of the other companies?"

 

Once he has these answers, he should follow whatever policy they just told him should be done. Then he would be just doing exactly what they said to do.

 

I told him this but he just blew it off. What he's done with two of them is told the person directly to stop.

[uniqueone]

isn't that illegal even to watch in this country?

 

sometimes, we ALL need a "little" surf time.

 

also...i'm no computer geek, but there are filters or whatever for servers that can block entrance into any of those sites and those blocks can be logged, or so i've heard.

 

Oh yeah...there are filters....management didn't want them. See, a few years back they had this IT guy who was a control freak and policed every move they made so now they don't want to give anyone that type of control.

 

However, the management that doesn't want the filters....doesn't know about these current incidents. My boss won't tell them! AGH!

[uniqueone]

oh and yeah, downloading underage porn is illegal.

[curiousnycgirl]

Well if you want to be a total b*tch about it, you can always report it to the FBI. They take this kind of stuff very seriously.

[norajane]

Everywhere I've worked has had policies against porn and against some 'inappropriate' websites (gambling sites, video games, probably Loveshack ).

 

And everywhere I've worked has had policies against sexual harassment and creating a 'hostile' work environment...such as one where you have to walk past guys with girlie calendars up on the wall or porn sites on the computer screen.

 

Enforcing those policies is trickier. In your case, where the porn viewers don't even work for your company, I'm not sure how you can take it up the chain.

 

I guess what I find really stupid about it is, jeez, can't these guys stay away from the porn for the hours they're at work?! I mean, really, get some self-control and get a life!

[uniqueone]

Well if you want to be a total b*tch about it, you can always report it to the FBI. They take this kind of stuff very seriously.

 

I told my boss about the FBI finding this kind of stuff and he didn't seem too bothered. No, I wouldn't tell on my company though...it could come back and slap you in the face.

[uniqueone]

Everywhere I've worked has had policies against porn and against some 'inappropriate' websites (gambling sites, video games, probably Loveshack ).

 

And everywhere I've worked has had policies against sexual harassment and creating a 'hostile' work environment...such as one where you have to walk past guys with girlie calendars up on the wall or porn sites on the computer screen.

 

Enforcing those policies is trickier. In your case, where the porn viewers don't even work for your company, I'm not sure how you can take it up the chain.

 

I guess what I find really stupid about it is, jeez, can't these guys stay away from the porn for the hours they're at work?! I mean, really, get some self-control and get a life!

 

You forget about the wives at home...........

 

One of the guys lives out of town and comes to the offices in our city twice a week. It looks like he was also on sites where you meet women too. Guess the wifey doesn't have a clue.....

[uniqueone]

Let me add this.....

 

From what I understand there were a few pions at the company I work at caught on porn sites awhile back and one got fired and one almost did. Guess it all depends on WHO you are. (plus the fact that they worked for our company factored in too).

[uniqueone]

Here's some more info on it......there's lots more....

 

We recently had a hacker get into our system and committed bank fraud using our network as a host site. The FBI got involved to find the culprit. That means they could be monitoring our network already. I told my boss this.....like it does any good to tell him though.......

[norajane]

You forget about the wives at home...........

 

One of the guys lives out of town and comes to the offices in our city twice a week. It looks like he was also on sites where you meet women too. Guess the wifey doesn't have a clue.....

 

Oh, he's one of those guys...my last company was full of those guys.

 

Any wives out there who want to know if their husbands are cheating really need to talk to the women their husbands work with. Guys are soooo obvious with their behavior, and some even come out and tell you (or proposition you). And any women having affairs with some guy at work...well, they really need to realize everybody knows, no matter how well they think they hide it.

[uniqueone]

Oh, he's one of those guys...my last company was full of those guys.

 

Any wives out there who want to know if their husbands are cheating really need to talk to the women their husbands work with. Guys are soooo obvious with their behavior, and some even come out and tell you (or proposition you). And any women having affairs with some guy at work...well, they really need to realize everybody knows, no matter how well they think they hide it.

 

 

And he's the owner's son-in-law. And the owner is a millionaire.

[woodsfield]

i think you should keep your whits about you, stick up for what you think is right, but try not to become a "rat".

 

as for the rich, upper class twits who run the place; they should at least block porn and gambling sites from the office. i think it's a no brainer, even with the IT nut they had before.

[uniqueone]

i think you should keep your whits about you, stick up for what you think is right, but try not to become a "rat".

 

as for the rich, upper class twits who run the place; they should at least block porn and gambling sites from the office. i think it's a no brainer, even with the IT nut they had before.

 

I think it's pointless that I monitor the sites at all. It's just making me more upset that not much gets done about it.

[Trialbyfire]

What are your contractual obligations as the host of these networks? This is more important than guessing/assuming it's underage porn.

 

I would send an email to your superior and ask the question and add in legal implications to your question.

 

"Hi xyz superior,

 

As previously discussed, it concerns me that we are hosting networks whereby the end-users are freely surfing pornography. What concerns me are our contractual obligations to the hosted companies and the legal implications to any pornography being viewed or downloaded.

 

Thanks,

xyz employee"

 

CYA... then back-off. Your superior has a role to play and so do you.

[uniqueone]

What are your contractual obligations as the host of these networks? This is more important than guessing/assuming it's underage porn.

 

I would send an email to your superior and ask the question and add in legal implications to your question.

 

"Hi xyz superior,

 

As previously discussed, it concerns me that we are hosting networks whereby the end-users are freely surfing pornography. What concerns me are our contractual obligations to the hosted companies and the legal implications to any pornography being viewed or downloaded.

 

Thanks,

xyz employee"

 

CYA... then back-off. Your superior has a role to play and so do you.

 

You mean what is our contractual obligation to who hosts our DNS? If that's what you mean, he would have no idea whatsoever. He SHOULD know...but he wouldn't.

 

I don't think the hosting site is the one that controls whether or not porn is tolerated. That's decided farther down the tree.

 

I agree with the CYA part and I sent an email regarding how we should be enforcing policies especially for underage porn, etc....