Irish employees are being warned about sharing e-copies of the so-called “mommy porn” trilogy ‘50 Shades of Grey’ on their workplace’s networks. The graphic nature of the sexually explicit books could be flagged as inappropriate.
The Evening Herald reports that some content control systems could pick up on the e-versions of ‘50 Shades of Grey’ and flag it for inappropriate content.
The trilogy has been immensely popular in Ireland, and has already surpassed other literary giants ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ as fastest selling paperback.
Sheelagh Hawkins of the Irish-owned company MXSweep, a provider of secure communications, said "As an employee, I may not want to receive a copy of 50 Shades Of Grey.”
Hawkins added that "This issue is common but actually very easy to solve if proper email content control is enabled."
A representative for the Data Protection Commissioner told The Herald that "If an employer provides equipment, they have a right to monitor this to a certain extent, but it should be balanced.”
"It should not be the case that they are monitoring the content of each and every email,” he added. “The employer should stipulate to employees what you can and cannot use the equipment for and be upfront about it.”
"If an employee's misuse of email or internet is found too far unacceptable, there is a strong possibility that he or she will get fired."
1 Comment
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.SingleDonald | Aug 16, 2012, 05:07 PM EDT
I agree that this kind of thing is inappropriate at work. What one does afterwards is none of the company's business, but computers at work are for business. OK, some internet browsing may be done. However, a book like "50 Shades of Gray" can be flagged as contributing to a hostile work envirnment, if read on company computers, or possibly even if brought into the office, in book form. Therefore, it is best to read the book on one's own time, if she or he is into this kind of thing. I know I would have been in trouble had I brought "Playboy" into my state agency, or accessed Mr. Hefner's website on its computers!