Business liable for chld porn on their network?

[pyramyd35]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

My husband was downloading incestuous kiddie porn while at work, on his work owned laptop. Now we just found out that he had a hidden digital camera with video capability in the bathrooms at our home, and was taking surrpetitious images. He then took them to work and downloaded them, at work, onto his work computer.

The policy at his work, relating to internet use, is that it should be work related, but they don't do ANY monitoring of any kind.

What liability, if any, is there for this being on their network and their property for an ongoing time period of over a year?

One of his managers knew that there were some issues related to this, over a year and a half ago. Does that matter?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by pyramyd35

What is the name of your state? Michigan

My husband was downloading incestuous kiddie porn while at work, on his work owned laptop. Now we just found out that he had a hidden digital camera with video capability in the bathrooms at our home, and was taking surrpetitious images. He then took them to work and downloaded them, at work, onto his work computer.

The policy at his work, relating to internet use, is that it should be work related, but they don't do ANY monitoring of any kind.

What liability, if any, is there for this being on their network and their property for an ongoing time period of over a year?

One of his managers knew that there were some issues related to this, over a year and a half ago. Does that matter?

**A: so what are you looking for ie. a criminal investigation, arrest, civil litigation, divorce etc.?

[pyramyd35]

Divorce is filed. Criminal charges re: child sexually abusive material are filed and in process. The videos of the bathroom were just discovered, and I've requested that several other charges be filed (child abuse, surreptitious recording/surveillance, others).

Civil litigation: well, I'm so mad/upset/furious/shocked etc that I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe in the future, but also want to make sure that it doesn't happen again. To any one else or their children. His work fired him, but not for downloading porn. They fired him since he threw the computer into a sink full of water in an attempt to destroy the evidence. They fired him for destruction of their property.

As a rule, are companies (this is an educational institution) responsible for what's on their networks? If they have the capability to stop these things from happening, but they don't, are they liable? My knee-jerk reaction right now is "get everybody responsible in the smallest way" but I've never sued anyone in my life, and I REALLY don't want to have my daughters or anyone else in those videos to be re-victimized by the court process, which can at times be pretty brutal.

My ultimate goal would be to effect some sort of change in the institution - have them change their policy to include tracking of internet usage and personal device downloads, and to take steps against those that engage in any illegal activity...

[You Are Guilty]

Originally Posted by pyramyd35

Divorce is filed. Criminal charges re: child sexually abusive material are filed and in process. The videos of the bathroom were just discovered, and I've requested that several other charges be filed (child abuse, surreptitious recording/surveillance, others).

Civil litigation: well, I'm so mad/upset/furious/shocked etc that I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe in the future, but also want to make sure that it doesn't happen again. To any one else or their children. His work fired him, but not for downloading porn. They fired him since he threw the computer into a sink full of water in an attempt to destroy the evidence. They fired him for destruction of their property.

As a rule, are companies (this is an educational institution) responsible for what's on their networks? If they have the capability to stop these things from happening, but they don't, are they liable? My knee-jerk reaction right now is "get everybody responsible in the smallest way" but I've never sued anyone in my life, and I REALLY don't want to have my daughters or anyone else in those videos to be re-victimized by the court process, which can at times be pretty brutal.

My ultimate goal would be to effect some sort of change in the institution - have them change their policy to include tracking of internet usage and personal device downloads, and to take steps against those that engage in any illegal activity...

I can understand your "frustration", but there is no state in the US that requires active policing of computer networks to seek out illicit materials or usage. (On the other hand, if they have actual knowledge of something inappropriate and fail to act, that may give rise to liability, but you still have a problem of no damages).

I'd focus on cooperating with the DA and the police and not worrying about this employer.