Compromising pics found on office computer -UPDATE-

[OutHouse]

His kids are like 8 y/o and younger.

I don't care if the girls aren't jailbait and look that way. Still not appropriate to have on a laptop I am taking into school clinics to keep charting records on.

I haven't searched for more. Do you think it's my job?

you told us that it isnt your job to delete them but now you ask if its your job to search for more?

christ make a mountain out of a mole hill. the pictures are NOT illegal, inappropriate for a company laptop yes but not illegal. delete them and move on.

 

[CPA]

His kids are like 8 y/o and younger.

I don't care if the girls aren't jailbait and look that way. Still not appropriate to have on a laptop I am taking into school clinics to keep charting records on.

I haven't searched for more. Do you think it's my job?

Mosh, you have a duty to your place of employment to uphold certain ethical standards. I would assume that you signed some form of employee handbook describing such standards. And if there is any question that you feel uncomfortable with the images, then you need to involve HR.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

You don't know me. Not everyone has your bastard mentality. I have said I don't want to get this guy fired although he isn't a model Administrator. It isn't my goal to have him lose his job or else I would have already taken this computer immediately, along with me making a big fuss, to someone who cares.

I haven't done that.

Why am I responding to you? I must be having a weak moment. You are like the lowliest scumbag on this board. I am sure you will retaliate with some of your usual lies and venom.

Well, i think your overreaction kinda proves the point i made.

Why are you responding to me? Because you despreratly need to deny, deny, deny....

I don't know if that is percieved as venom but it's an observation.

Good luck getting him fired or whatever you need to do to him, did he reject you or something?

 

[M0RPH]

you told us that it isnt your job to delete them but now you ask if its your job to search for more?

christ make a mountain out of a mole hill. the pictures are NOT illegal, inappropriate for a company laptop yes but not illegal. delete them and move on.

This. OP sounds like an old busybody. OP, you haven't even made it clear whether anyone else uses the laptop and why you're so sure this particular guy put the pictures there. You keep saying you don't want to get anyone in trouble, but it sure seems like you're itching to show these pics to someone. Just delete the damn pics and move on.

 

[JDub02]

report it to your company's ethics department or at least to IT and your manager. have them either scrub the computer or give you another one.

 

[Sea Moose]

As someone who works in IT, my advise is the following:
Do NOT touch the files. Can they tell if you delete it? Yes.
Can they tell who downloaded it? Yes.
Can they tell when it was put onto the laptop? Yes.

Whether the pictures are illegal or not is irrelevant. They are inappropriate and possibly violate company IT policy on use of a shared laptop.

I would suggest setting up a meeting with your supervisor, your HR liason and someone from th LEGAL department.

Whether someone in HR is friends with them or not won't matter to Legal. The corporate council is required to be impartial. Since the material is inappropriate, it may also come down to a legal decision as to what actions will be taken against the offender.

Federal Whistleblower statues protect you from any reprocussions for reporting it.

If you are asking what to do, obviously the material offends you. This is enough for HR & IT & Legal to begin an investigation.

'nuff said.

AS someone who is stupid, my advice is the following: Listen to Guyver.

He is wiser than gandalf

 

[daw123]

The way that I perceive it is that you have 3 options:
1. Delete the photos. You've already decided you're not going to do this.
2. Forget that they ever existed; i.e. do nothing and run the risk that you get blamed for doing nothing if the photos are discovered later on and the brown stuff hits the fan.
3. Report the photos to the company. I understand that you are already doing this by getting someone from IT involved, therefore you have ruled out options 1 and 2. Also, if this guy has experience of dealing with this type of predicament, then you are sorted.

Edit: Get it in writing that you reported it, so that your ar$e is covered.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

AS someone who is stupid, my advice is the following: Listen to Guyver.

He is wiser than gandalf

@nd on Guyver's advice. Even if the pederass is buddies with the HR guy, The HR guy isn't going to risk his career over this. It's pretty much a slam dunk case of using company equipment against policy. And by having such pictures, the suggestion of them being underage is enough to get the company in deep shit should someone find out about it.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

So... the deal here is, don't talk to him personally, don't ask him anything, don't tell him anything....

Just report him so that he might lose his job over something you know nothing about?

Is that the American Way?

 

[Pantoot]

So... the deal here is, don't talk to him personally, don't ask him anything, don't tell him anything....

Just report him so that he might lose his job over something you know nothing about?

Is that the American Way?

You forgot the part where a meeting is to be set up between management, HR, LEGAL, FINANCE, the BBB, and the FBI to discuss what could possibly be a breach of the companies acceptable use policy for a shared resource.

 

[Blackjack200]

Mosh,

I don't have much time, but the only course of action that seems sane to me:

Go to your direct supervisor, show him the files, and tell him the circumstances under which you found them. Do not volunteer your knowledge or belief about who used the laptop last or who might have downloaded the picture. Do not tell anyone else at the company, it is your boss's call. Do not tell IT/HR or anyone else, that is the equivalent of going over your boss's head.

I can't see the pictures, but if they looked like child porn to me (and I believe it can be child porn even if the subjects are wearing clothes) I would call the police first, and then tell my boss that I had notified the police of potential illegal activity.

This is completely reasonable behavior. If you would lose your job for it I don't know what to tell you. I'm not a tattletale, I've worked for several large (and small) firms and would never expect to be fired for doing this.

 

[Blackjack200]

Mosh,

I don't have much time, but the only course of action that seems sane to me:

Go to your direct supervisor, show him the files, and tell him the circumstances under which you found them. Do not volunteer your knowledge or belief about who used the laptop last or who might have downloaded the picture. Do not tell anyone else at the company, it is your boss's call. Do not tell IT/HR or anyone else, that is the equivalent of going over your boss's head.

I can't see the pictures, but if they looked like child porn to me (and I believe it can be child porn even if the subjects are wearing clothes) I would call the police first, and then tell my boss that I had notified the police of potential illegal activity.

This is completely reasonable behavior. If you would lose your job for it I don't know what to tell you. I'm not a tattletale, I've worked for several large (and small) firms and would never expect to be fired for doing this.

Also, if you suspect the images are child porn, and you report them to the police and then your boss, your third call is to a lawyer, before the police talk to you. Although I think it's highly unlikely that any blame would shift towards you, your job will not defend you from civil or crimial charges.

 

[CRXican]

In late but,

you guessed at their ages, they have clothes on

delete to recycle bin and forget about them

 

[Kadarin]

yes, turn a blind eye to next week's star of "To Catch a Predator", except his next victim won't be a setup from the show, it will be some underage girl he abducts, rapes and murders because people like you who found out about his proclivities did nothing back when something could have been done.

Because we all know that looking at pictures of fully clothed teenaged girls kissing turns everyone into child molesting rapists...

ok, that's worst case scenario.

Ya think?

 

[SagaLore]

I haven't searched for more. Do you think it's my job?

No, but if he's suspect enough, more files would indicate bad intent. If that is the only file you found, then there could be some stupid reason why it ended up there. I'll help you investigate this if you want.

 

[Number1]

I must be retarded to ask for advice here and deal with people like you.

Now, step back, and realize that calling me a retard was uncalled for. I am a competent intelligent adult who has a dilemma and came here asking for advice. Most of the people here are sincere and helpful, and then there's you who feels the need to add an insult to injury.

Look, from what I read you're doing the right thing.
I just used strong word to get my point across.
Sorry if I offended you.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Ugh... yeh, he needs to be fired and for more reasons than this. I just think those who I'd report him to are in bed with him anyway so to speak and nothing would come of it.

Sounds like you need a new job, you show obvious disdain for this guy in a position of some authority which obviously you had before you found the photos, and you also appear to have no respect for the higher ups that he reports too. Find someplace where you respect the people you work for. Making an issue of these photos will most likely backfire on you

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

I'm with the others suggesting you report this. There are so many ways this could come back to bite you if you leave the images on the computer or delete them and say nothing. If they end up being discovered without you reporting it, you're probably going to get fired.

Who cares if this guy is friends with the HR people? Do the right thing, report it, get it on record. If they don't reprimand him, so be it.

 

[amdhunter]

If you don't know their real ages, and they are fully clothed, you'd be a retard to say anything about it.
Just mind your business.

 

[lurk3r]

I love all the self righteous tattle nazi's posting from work about how wrong it is to use a company laptop to view pictures that its been pretty much established are not illegal in any way. 9 pages of it ...

If you are very concerned, check the details of the photos, see when they were saved, and check the internet history on those dates.

You've said its a shared company laptop, so how can you be sure who put them there?

If you're worried about your own job, your obligation goes no further than your immediate supervisor. Like a couple people have said, contacting anyone else is essentially going over your bosses head, and if he chooses to take it wrong, I'm sure he'd have a case to fire you.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

You forgot the part where a meeting is to be set up between management, HR, LEGAL, FINANCE, the BBB, and the FBI to discuss what could possibly be a breach of the companies acceptable use policy for a shared resource.

No i did not, a personal question, you know, from one person to the other could resolve this in a matter of seconds.

Of course, then she couldn't get back at that person for rejecting her or for whatever reason she dislikes him (she has admitted as much) and it would be the proper thing to do, which one obviously should never consider if one finds oneself in the dilemma of being an American.

It reminds me of other states, "if you suspect your co worker, turn him in instead of confronging him, there is always room for one more on the train to Gulag"

 

[SunSamurai]

The longer you wait the worse it will be.

 

[SSSnail]

Mosh, check your PM.

 

[DrPizza]

Now that I'm a bit more awake, I had a bit of time to think about it. Mosh, unless I'm mistaken, you're an obligated reporter, or whatever the hell it is. i.e. You (I'm another person obligated to report such things) could lose your professional license to work in NY if it's found that you knew of a case of child abuse or child exploitation and we did not report it. If the children (if they were children) were being photographed in suggestive poses, I think that's too gray of an area for me where I would just delete the files & let it slide. You doubt that he's the one who took the photos, I doubt it to. But, do you know 100% for certain? If he did, it could potentially come back to bite you on the ass.

Just report to your supervisor & let him deal with it.

 

[pontifex]

you told us that it isnt your job to delete them but now you ask if its your job to search for more?

christ make a mountain out of a mole hill. the pictures are NOT illegal, inappropriate for a company laptop yes but not illegal. delete them and move on.

I think you're misreading that. Maybe I'm misreading it, but that sounds more like a rhetorical or sarcastic question than an actual question of whether she is asking you all if you think she should look for more.