Porn Spam = Sexual Harassment?

Consider this. You have a new employee. Once day she files a sexual harassment complaint against your company. The reason? She’s received several porn spams in her inbox and considers it harassment. Ridiculous? At first glance, yes. We all know there is no perfect spam filter, and even the best ones will let a spam message through now and then. Spammers continually come up with methods to foil filters, making the problem worse. Blaming an employer for this seems absurd-if the employee happened to receive a catalog for an adult movie store in her postal mail would she accuse the postal service of sexual harassment? Probably not.

However, there are some that believe a company could actually be held liable, based on the EEOC rules that state an employer must provide a non-hostile work environment. There haven’t been any documented cases of a company being sued for sexual harassment over porn spam, but it’s still worth being concerned about. Talk to your company’s legal department, and make sure you have a strong internet policy in place that clearly states visiting porn sites is prohibited and will not be tolerated. Make sure you have the best spam filter you can afford in place as well. This is considered “due diligence” and shows the court your company was doing all it could to block porn spam.

That said, if an employee complains about porn spam, take it seriously and investigate. In days gone by things like pin ups from pornographic magazines and crude drawings were often left on the desks of female employees as a form of harassment. These days, it’s more likely an employee bent on harassing another might sign that employees address up on porn sites and the like. It’s not something any company wants to think about, but the best way to protect your business is to consider all the possibilities and come up with solutions before they happen.

So what’s your opinion? Can porn spam be considered sexual harassment? Let us know what you think!