WORKPLACE PORN MISUSE  - 'Everyone’s Doing It’

‘Everyone’s doing it’ was the excuse used by an accused Quantas employee to their HR Officer in the latest high profile corporate illicit image incident involving Australia’s National Airline.  Ten Qantas employees have been suspended indefinitely for allegedly looking at, sending or receiving pornographic pictures and other inappropriate images on computers at Sydney Airport.  Qantas confirmed it was conducting an internal inquiry and the workers could possibly lose their jobs if it was found they breached strict workplace policies on the viewing and sharing of illicit material.

The Sun-Herald has learnt the scandal came to light when a female human resources executive was walking past a desk in an operations area and saw a male worker looking at an image on a computer. She told him to close the image down. When she later returned to his desk, the worker was still looking at the image. He was told a formal complaint would be made. It’s understood the images contained photographic and graphically explicit pornographic poses.

At least one employee was suspended for allegedly sending an explicit pornographic image to workmates from a private computer. He told Qantas investigators that he did not realise it would end up on workplace computers because he thought he had sent it to their private computers. Six workers have been suspended for between five and six weeks, while four others were suspended late last month after the inquiry uncovered more inappropriate computer use.

A Qantas spokesman said the airline did not tolerate employees using its IT system to 'send, store, or forward pornographic, obscene, offensive or discriminatory material. Failure to adhere to these policies can lead to disciplinary action including warnings and termination of employment’.

It is the legal duty of companies to take reasonable steps to eliminate harassing material from the workplace and provide an environment free of discrimination. Failure to do so may result in prosecution under various legislation (depending upon jurisdiction) including, Child Trafficking and Pornography Acts, Sexual Offences Acts, Obscene Publications Acts and the Civil and Human RightsAct. 

Company directors and managers can be held personally liable for the content of corporate computers, whether they are aware of the activity or not. Under compliance legislation they can be subject to criminal prosecution if negligence is found in the management of data and images on company computers. Even though a business can object to porn and enforce an explicit policy against it, its presence can negatively reflect on a business, particularly if a case goes to court.

Managing illegal and inappropriate images in the workplace is a real and constant challenge but through a combination of good policy procedures and enforcement technologies, organisations can effectively demonstrate best practice while doing their utmost to minimise the risk of exposure for both the company and its employees.  Acceptable levels of behaviour need to be clearly defined to employees; penalties for breach of corporate policy should be well understood and staff should know that the organisation is actively auditing and managing the corporate environment and if breached, penalties will be enforced.

Any new proposals within existing legislation are a positive step and could be a useful deterrent, but this needs to be combined with greater awareness and use of preventative technologies and policy within the workplace. The best deterrent of image misuse behaviour and the only way to reduce corporate exposure and stop illicit images is by monitoring what people are actually looking at on desktops and through routine auditing of corporate networks find, remove and continuously monitor inappropriate content material.

‘Everyone is doing it’ is inexcusable and organisations need to take proactive control and action. The definition and enforcement of policy, regular audits and a visible line of defence for desktop; laptops; email correspondence and file servers is the only sure way of dealing and putting a stop to this undesirable and damaging activity in the workplace.

About PixAlert

With a growing number responsibility for companies to deploy effective image detection solutions, PixAlert’s powerful multi-source image discovery and analysis software is a proven solution and global market leader in protecting corporate reputation, brand integrity and reducing financial risk from the distribution and storage of inappropriate content on networks.  PixAlert’s scanning detection technologies helps organisations save time and energy while significantly reducing costs by supplying best practice security solutions which comply with legislation, enforce corporate policies, enhance working environments and protect against legal proceedings and brand damage.  For further information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Article Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Article Author: Gerard Curtin, CEO, PixAlert