Friday, March 10, 2006

What's REALLY Wrong With A Little Porn At Work?

This guy is suspended with pay for watching porn on his computer at work. What he didn't realize was that the computer was also connected to a monitor behind him, so his (college) students got to watch a little bit of free porn in class.

Is there really something wrong with watching porn at work? Is there anything else besides porn that we can't view on our computers at work? In K-12 schools I can see the justification for a ban--you want there to be zero risk of a minor seeing this stuff because of an adult. But in grown-up workplaces? Is it really so bad?

Just throwing some ideas out there, trying to avoid the groupthink.

6 comments:

Wulf said...

In light of what you are asking, my first question would be, is he breaking a school rule by viewing porn in the first place?

If not, your question becomes more than academic.

Darren said...

The question is worth asking: why should it be against the rules in the first place?

Save Ferris.

Kimberly Lloyd said...

My freshman year of college, some dormmates dragged me to a performance artist primarily because she used the word "sex" in the title of her performance. I actually thought she had some interesting stuff to say, until she ended her performance by masturbating on stage and pushing audience members' faces into her cleavage.

As far as I'm concerned, the school paid to put on live action porn for us. Having a prof use his personal stash would have saved money.

Anonymous said...

I see no problem with any business regulating what sites are appropriate in the work setting. I'm not even speaking morally appropriate here-that's a different discussion. A business should have every right to expect and demand that the bandwidth used at their site is work related. No vongo, video games, espn running scores, or porn.

It's a simple matter of work vs. play or home. At work, company resources should be used for company purpose. Save your porn fetish or sports addiction for off-work time.

Darren said...

Doug, your comment makes sense, especially since according to your rules the prohibitions would be content-neutral. But since that isn't the case in many work environments, I'm just curious about the rationale that wants to prohibit a grownup from watching a peepshow at lunch.

Darren said...

Jihan, my question was general. Obviously this guy, whose porn was seen on a screen by a class full of students, made a tremendous mistake.

And I don't deny for a moment that employers can regulate content on computers. I merely question, as a Devil's Advocate, why they would want to regulate content, even porn.