Child porn downloads ignored by firms

Three-quarters of companies would not report employees caught downloading child pornography in the workplace to the police, according to new research.

The survey of 200 UK IT managers by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) also found 38 per cent would not even discipline or sack an employee for downloading illegal pornography.

Peter Robbins, CEO of the IWF, told silicon.com that one reason for the high figure is that many IT professionals are still concerned that storing any illegal images found on the corporate network as evidence could also leave them open to prosecution.

"It is a very shocking figure when you consider the serious nature of the content we are talking about. But it has been a grey area for those monitoring networks who are worried they might be guilty by viewing and copying it for evidence," he said.

But changes to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which came into force last year, now provide a conditional defence protecting IT managers who in their day-to-day management of corporate networks may need to download and then store potentially indecent images of children as evidence in order for the content to be assessed by police or the IWF.

Robbins admitted it was "impossible to know" the extent of child pornography downloaded and viewed in the workplace but said the increasing range of devices such as PDAs and laptops that employees can use to access the internet has had an impact.

"Because of the portability of devices companies provide to employees sometimes people forget they are using work equipment when they visit these illegal sites," he said.

The warning is part of the IWF's 'Wipe it Out' campaign to raise awareness amongst IT, HR and legal and regulatory managers about how to tackle the issue of illegal pornography in the workplace. It will be distributing literature and best practice guidelines to over 3,000 IT managers in the UK.