Sexting Case Heard by the Supreme Court

Posted Apr 27th 2010 7:08AM by Francis Duncan
Filed under: Social Networking, Articles of Interest, Sexting

My name is Francis Duncan. I have been guilty of using company time, the company computer and even company e-mail to send personal e-mail. That last one to my father about his up-coming trip could have waited until after hours, but I sent it during office hours.

According to this MSNBC article, I am not the only person to use company resources for personal reasons. This one more personal than my example: "Jeff Quon, a California SWAT sergeant, was given a pager from his employer, the Ontario Police Department. He was later found to have used the device not only for work but also for pleasure, often sending sexually explicit text messages to his wife and his mistress."

Quon's employer found out by reading the texts, siting that the pager was "owned by the department". Quon felt that it was a violation of his privacy. The courts were brought into the mix and it is now going to be escalated to the Supreme Court to determine if the department had the right to read the texts.

The Supreme Court heard the case last Monday and a decision is expected by the end of June.

Regardless of how it turns out, this will effect most workplaces. What do you think the outcome should be? Should the messages be kept private? Or did the department have the right to read them?

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ddm 4-27-2010 @ 10:47AM

Yes they should be able to read them because it is company property he should not be using it for pleasure and what if the company was saving the life and moral of a minor becuase he was sexting a minor..

Francis Duncan 4-27-2010 @ 10:53AM

Thanks for the comment. What would you think proper discipline should be by the company for using company email for personal reasons? Do you think the company should share the content of email with anyone other than the manager and employee? Of course, both assuming there is nothing illegal found.