College

UBC staffers caught watching porn

13 unionized workers suspended for using university computers to view sexually explicit material

Thirteen employees at the University of British Columbia have been caught watching and distributing pornography with their work computers. Although no one has lost their job over the incident, the workers were all given 10 day suspensions in recent months. “There was an investigation on the use of IT, and it came to the attention that a number of staff were involved in viewing, receiving and distributing sexually explicit material using UBC e-mail and computers,” UBC spokesman Scott Macrae told the Vancouver Province.

Macrae would not give any more details on exactly what the employees were viewing beyond confirming the material was “sexually explicit.” Nor would Macrae divulge which departments the disciplined employees worked in, except to say that they were all unionized workers.

However inappropriate using work computers for viewing pornography might be, it is quite common, sex addiction expert Paulette Tomasson told the CBC. “At least 70 per cent of pornography is downloaded between 9 and 5,” she said.