In 2008, Indonesia passed a major anti-pornography bill after overwhelming support in their Parliament. But last month, an outspoken supporter of this law was caught—photographed, actually—viewing explicit material on his tablet computer. He was doing this while sitting in a plenary session of the House of Representatives.
In his defense, he says he was not actually viewing a pornographic movie. He had opened an e-mail from an unknown source that happened to contain pornographic pictures.
He looked at the photos for two and a half minutes.
The lawmaker, Arifinto, is a member of the Prosperous Justice Party. He has since resigned as a member of the House. On April 11, Arifinto said before the House, “With all of my conscience, without any coercion from anyone or any elements, for the sake of myself and the party’s honor, following this statement, I will soon file my resignation as a member of the House of Representatives to my party.”
It’s scary when we realize that pornography can chase us down even in the places we think are safest—like where we work. Consider the following stats:
- Two-thirds of HR professionals surveyed say they have discovered porn on employee computers.
- According to Webroot, 28% of those questioned said they had downloaded sexually explicit content while on the job. Half of all workers said they had been exposed to sexually explicit material by other coworkers.
- Half of Fortune 500 companies have dealt with at least one incident of computer porn over a 12-month period. Offenders were fired in 44% of cases and disciplines in 41% of cases.
- Hundreds of NSA and other Pentagon officials with high-security clearance have downloaded child pornography. Four years ago the government probe, Operation Flicker, identified over 5,000 suspects, and since then 1,700 of these have never been screened. Of those who have been screened, 302 people were identified, only 70 pursued, and only a handful resulted in prosecutions.
Never before has corporate accountability been more important—both to stop pornography from spreading through the work environment and to protect the innocent from needless charges.