Sixty second hypothetical.

[rivka]

Your boss lets her nine-year-old son hang out in your office sometimes, when she's working in the evening or on weekends. When he's here, he uses your computer. (And never puts the mouse back on the left side, but that's beside the point.)

You have Internet Explorer set up to clear the history file every day, but IE also keeps track of URLs which have been directly typed in - you can access them from the address bar. One of the ways you can tell that your boss's son has been using your computer is that sites like cartoonnetwork.com and nickelodeon.com appear in the address bar menu. Okay. But one morning, nakedladys.com is right in there with the addresses for cartoon websites. You click on the link to make sure it's not an ironically-named site for kids. It's not.

You have no idea whether your institution monitors Internet usage for porn viewing, although it's pretty obvious that no one is checking to see how much time you spend on non-work-related sites in general.

Do you tell your boss? And if so, what do you tell her?

Comments

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say anything to the mother. Instead, I'd go into the internet cache for IE and modify the appropriate cached copy of the nakedladys.com home page to say

"Hey, [kid],

I can see everything that you're looking at on my computer. I know what you're doing, and I know that your mom would be very angry if she knew. I'm very angry myself, and I think I should probably tell your mom, but perhaps there is a better way for you to learn your lesson. So here's what we're going to do. You're going to bring me some of my favorite chocolates. And I mean the good ones from [link to Wockenfuss], not grocery store chocolates! I want two truffles each time you use my computer for anything that you might get in trouble for. Two! Just put them right there on the right side of my keyboard, where the mouse doesn't go. I know that it might be a bit difficult to explain why you need the fine chocolates to your mother, but, believe me, it'll be easier than explaining what you're doing on my computer.

Your 'special friend',
Rivka

Well, I might think about doing that, anyway.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

*worships*

-J

oooOOOOOoooo

[ex-helygen254.livejournal.com]

You are evil. Have I mentioned I like you?

Can this be done for Mozilla? There's a certain child who games when he should be doing homework...

Re: oooOOOOOoooo

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I imagine it should be possible. Keith would probably know. Or we could install censorware that blocks the game sites he uses.

Re: oooOOOOOoooo

[ex-helygen254.livejournal.com]

Censorware wouldn't be nearly as much fun. :)