Porn on boss' computer--the Ethicist speaks

I hate to admit it, but it would seem silence is the best course of action, particularly if it is someone much further up the food chain than your immediate supervisor. Depending on your relationship with the (Assumed...) "guilty" party and the nature of the contraband (child vs. straight porn), you may be able to off-handedly comment about how "certain items should be cleaned before you pass back through on your cleaning sweep" after notifying either your boss or H/R of the situation to cover your own backside.

While this does not excuse you from responsibilities when it comes to porn images of children, unless you are absolutely iron-clad certain as to the origins of the contraband you are playing Russian Roulette with an automatic instead of a revolver with your career.

I'd have to say that I would monitor the individual's computer for evidence of further infractions. If this occurs then you are justified in going back to H/R (where there is already a record of your concern - as well, hopefully as your own detailed account of the steps taken by yourself...) and putting the ball in their lap(s).

If I was on a service call to work on a system, and it was an unavoidable act to find these pictures, then I would inform management, or an security or manager.

If I accidentally found it, or it was in a place that I should not have found it (or would need to look for it), I probably would not have run into it. In that case I would'nt know about it.

But the majority of the time I disregard pictures and they stay private for the individual.
However, I know someone who has been asked (as a contractor) to search a HDD for all Porn and print it out before. This manager accidentally printed a bunch and forgot to pick it up from the printer. Lol -- stupid mistake.
Anyway, he refused (as I would have) and forced the company to use its own internal security team for this.

If indeed it is child or early teens porn, then something must be done.

If it is the "boss" (i.e. CEO) then call the police.

What's the worse point - losing the job or possibly (by lack of intervention) encourage the exploitation of kids? Look in the mirror and ask yourself, in 25 years time, which of those choices is going to make your memories easier to deal with?

If it is a lesser boss then tell the CEO, HR Manager or someone else in authority, diarise the discussion and get your diary note witnessed by a (I think in the US you call them public notaries, in our world we call them Justices of the Peace).

If it is not child porn and the guy hasn't been forwarding it around to other people inappropriately then they'll deal with it. If it is child porn then it's a different world altogether.

Depending on the policies in place, there may be the opportunity to let someone else in the organization do the right thing - I've belonged to a few orgs where the correct thing is to report to an IT security officer, in other places it would be with HR.

If there is no designated person, I would look to a senior executive I trusted - CIO.

But in the end, while you may not be "legally" responsible for seeing the thing investigated, you are as far as I am concerned, morally obligated to ensure that the right thing is done, by you or someone else. And the right thing is to contact police.

It is not your call to sift through the evidence and determine whether it is really child porn or not. If it appears to a "reasonable" person that the models may be underage and/or exploited, you should let the police decide. Same thing with the various scenarios - let the police determine whether they hold water. I know on my PC, I have an encrypted HD and pretty secure password that I have agreed to not share. If there is bad stuff on my disk, I am reponsible, if not directly, indirectly.

You are protecting the company by doing this, if you need further encouragement. If you do nothing, are you not silently assisting potentially illegal and immoral acts? Let alone protecting the company from lawsuit and scandal.

Could you risk your job - yes. But if you lose your job for doing the right thing, would you really want to be there anyway? I know in a few companies I've worked at, you would be a hero.

James

if some one has been a tad foolish. Used IE to browse porn sites for instance.

If we were talking saved images / videos, then I'd have the coppers, fbi whatever in immediately.

I wouldn't give a toss about the company's reputation, less about the bosses, and have absolutely none about mine.

I have no problem with being known as person who won't turn a blind eye to this sort despicable filth.

The hardest part for me, would be not kicking the crap out of him.

Ethics, yeah right. What your saying is it's ok to have photos of children being shagged, which means some were shagged as long as you can make money out it.

Randy Cohen, I have no respect for you whatsoever. As for the guy who wrote to you grow a backbone, you snivelling coward.

The article discussed very little about ethics at all. We had a short discussion on legality, a lot of ifs and maybes leading to a conclusion that the questioner should be a self-serving sh:t and that was it.

Both the question poser and "The Ethicist", Randy Cohen, came over as people with a distinct lack of any.

If the FBI is already tracking the boss for kiddie porn the sys admin could be charged as well.

My suggestion: Take the HDD, talk to HR, and see what can be done. This is serious stuff and could land the sys admin in hot water by staying quiet.

First off - I agree with all posts that call for action. this is not just a crime, but one of the worst crimes ever. The sexual exploitation of children. I am taking for granted that it is child porn we are discussing here.

No Matter what (child porn or not) it must be reported to HR plain and simple. Get it on record that you discovered it, at what time, in what location (what computer and where on that computer) and what was observed.

There must be a record of this report. After that, it is up to the company to take action, not the employee.

If the company does not take action (more porn discovered later) then a second report to HR with a record must happen. This protects the technician.

If none of the above appears to be working, then it is a simple matter of the tech getting a lawyer and opening a sexual harrasment case. According to Federal Sexual harrassement laws, porn on a computer is deamed offensive and is criteria to take action (does not have to be child porn).

Bring a sexual harrassementt complaint to HR and watch how fast they take action, else, continue through your lawyer.

Not only should it not be there, but you (the tech) should not have to be subject to it, and simply because you were, in the work place, doing your normal job as usual, then you are the victim here.

And as a father of 4, I can't say I'd follow the same advise, only that I would certainly take action immediately, only not as nice. I would not take exposure to such a thing lightly at all.

The laws are so strict in that arena that simply "seeing" it on a computer could be illegal. By viewing it (if only for a second) you yourself could have broken the law, so protect yourself and take action now. Not doing so makes you an accessory.

Unless the "boss" is so high in the company that sending
him to jail would cripple or destroy the company, you
have no choice but to out him. You don't have to do it "in
person", though. You could ask enough people about it
that someone else would report him, for example.
"Plausible deniability", a concept from the Nixon Years,
can be your pal. I'd freshen your resume first, though.
Better yet, move on before reporting him. This person
could cause the company serious damage - either
because his behavior is Criminal, or because it is Deviant,
or because it leaves him open to blackmail. His boss may
still regard you as similarly dangerous and consider a
great review as an acceptable parting gift.

DLMeyer - the Voice of http://glhorton.podomatic.com/

I have been faced with this and have been grateful to have had a relationship with an attorney. The plan of action varies depending on what type of clientele the company has.

If the clients are children, or there is a fiduciary (financial responsibility) the actions might be different. There are ways to be a whistle-blower without being a martyr. Our corporate world shoots the messenger so getting out of outrage is a first, best step.

Discovering porn on a boss's computer uncovers many ethical issues. How did you discover the Porn? Was the method of discovery ethical?

Are you, the whistle-blower, clean ethically in the company in the fullest extent of the term?

And finally, since certain crimes unreported, carry penalties, I unhesitatingly consult a trusted attorney.

--John

This tech discovers images/contents of child pornography on his boss's computer, what needs to be done....

Those advocating silence are just taking care of themselves. Sorry I have to say it, if no one else will.

There isn't that much of a leap between viewing & using this kind of perverted content on your computer to becoming a predator who attacks children to take of his sadistic needs. Yes that's a general statement but an accurate one as well. He may not have physically done anything to children yet but it's against the law to have this kind of content in your possession - that's because it's precursor to the kind of behavior that would lead him to physically harming children. That's why it's illegal to have this crap on your computer, on vhs tape, dvd, books, magazines, etc.

Yes you can save your job and not say a thing. I would hate to find out sometime later that this tech's boss was actually involved in harming poor children. In saving your job, you enabled him to continue his activity without restraint, nothing was done to curb his behavior and punish him for the unspeakable acts he thinks up in his mind or in reality.

Save your job... not really a big deal.

Save a life, more importantly saving a child from a predator that could committ unspeakable acts - that is a big deal.

I wouldn't even blink at this decision.

But if you're like some people and you can't stand the thought of looking for another job, keep quiet. I hope no one gets hurt because of this decision. How much money is the tech person earning in his current job that it's worth it to remain quiet after making this kind of discovery.

Just remember, we all have to live with the decisions we make. I would rather live knowing that the decision I made possibly saved a life and helped put a predator of children behind bars.

Speak to HR, tell them what you found. Boss or no boss, this person should be reprimanded for his actions because he is stupid enough to pursue criminal activity using company computer equipment - talk about an audit trail! If they want do anything, speak to the Police. If the tech is really that worried about his job, ask for some kind anonymity, if anything they could start tracking his email, web surfing & instant messaging habits and begin a case against him on that, all the tech did was alert the police to someone who engaged in this behavior. The police would do their own work and accumulate the required evidence necessary to put him away.

There should be no tolerance for this kind of behavior ever! Once a child is attacked by this kind of predator, this person is ruined for life and will have problems for the rest of their life based on this experience. Do some research if you don't believe, find out more about the topic if you can't make up your mind on this situation.

Plus if this wasn't the boss, it was just a regular person working in the office, would we even 2nd guess what the required action would be? Does status really exempt you from criminal prosecution? Make no mistake, this is criminal activity we're talking about here - I would hope no one would think that status does give you a get out jail card for free.

The ethicist in the NY Times column should have given better advice. Give you heads a shake people, these are children we're talking about?!

It appears that most of the respondees are appalled at the 'ethical' response advocated.

Let's assume the most innocous case - that the boss's computer has been turned into a zombie and the controlling entity is using his drive for storage. Wouldn't the company and your boss be best served by pointing out the problem?.

In the worst case, the boss is trafficking in illegal images and needs to be prosecuted.

Between those to extremes I honestly can't think of an ETHICAL scenario that allows ignoring it. If it was indeed child porn a serious crime has been committed and must be investigated. Doing nothing just allows the crime to continue.

But that is a Question that must be answered by someone else. (too many time I've seen people set up to take a fall that way, and they they fell into it because of lax security on their part) There is no question about if you do something, You MUST do something. The question is what. Which brings up a realy good discussion.
-Policys-
Just what do you do? Who do you call? How is this handled? What is the Procedures for the like in your firm?
Now is the time to ask, not after something is found. there should be policies and standards in place at every firm in operation. In writing.!. Ask about them, or even write them your self. (the local law enforcement folks will probably be glad to help.)
I think that is what we, as IT Techies, should be discussing. so a thank-you to Leee for bringing it up. :-)

We place far too much emphasis on the repercussions to ourselves and others who may or may not be engaged in questionable activity. These pictures are a clear violation of the use of company computers - no matter what company we are talking about.

It does not matter that the pictures may be of "young-looking adults" the simple fact is that they are intended to look exactly as they are designed - as young teens possibly underaged. Is the discoverer obligated to now become a detective and determine the "truth" of the pictures? I think I would be more concerned now that if this boss gets caught by someone else, and it comes out that the "Ethicist" was aware of the pics, that he will be implicated as adding and abetting by letting it happen.

Which brings me directly to the point of all this. Far too many people take the easy road out of such situations saying that we don't know the truth of the matter behind the pictures. Too many people stand by the old axiom that "it's known of my business". It DOES NOT matter how the pictures wre discovered and revealed when it comes to child safety - the law actually supports casual discovery, at least in Canada - from an innocent discoverer.

When it comes to the question of child safety - we are obligated to err on the side of caution for the sake of all children. Cohen would have us bury our heads in the sand and do nothing. I would advise the HR department of what I had found, perhpas not exactly where, or on who's system, but would advise them that I am concerned enough to turn the matter over to police. Whether unfounded or not, I would rather stand up for my own principles that NO ONE should be supporting the ownership, distribution or creation of such questionable material, and that those who let it happen are just as culpable as those who perpetrate the act. I would not want to work for someone of such questionable character, nor would I want to work for a company that would want me to remain silent due to some small shred of doubt. I'd rather go to bed at night knowing I tried to do the right thing - consequences to myself be damned. Do you really think that other companies would look on this as a blot on your resume, should have to find employment elsewhere? I would think that a person of such integrity and principles would be welcomed by the better working environments.

Think like a paranoid... Where are the pics on the computer? Assume you had a different employee that was tech savy, and a boss that is clueless. One way to do avoid risk is to place the files on someone else's machine. Check file ownership, etc.
Second, if the files are there, and if they are discovered by someone else, and it turned out that you knew of their presence, you may have some liability; even if you need the job, it is a question of how much of a bullet you are willing to absorb, in worst-case scenario.
Then, sit back, and think somewhere away from work; don't let the everyday environment cloud your thoughts, as you decide. Once you decide on a course of action, document what you find, what you plan to do, and make certain there is not rancor or malice in your actions. Save the documentation somewhere away from work.
This may be a good time to chat with some legal counsel before you act. It may also be a good time to look for a different position.

As I'm innocent of viewing or producing child porn, I have no problem picking up my stone.

If you want to bring the words of Christ into this matter, let's consider all of those words. Like these.

Luke 17:2 - "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

Your compassion is laudable. Your application of compassion in this case is not.

who's to say that you didn't plant it?
are you guy's in the business of making child porn?
key word is "boss'computer" not your computer. . .not your child's computer. . be thankful for the purity in your life. . .did you get the information you were "needing" from your boss' computer, or were you so distracted that you became inefficient?
seriously, I've found porn, and I destroy it, no interrogating, no dwelling on the issue, just DELETE. no need to become a cancerous boil on the ass of my company,

silent objection would be deleting it. . .
Your concience would be cleared by action.
if it happens again, its not your fault.
if your boss has sex with a child during a company meeting, that is a crime, there are witnesses and every one can testify against the criminal. active participation in the removal of undesired behavior is every one's job.
if you don't object, it will grow

First of all, those of you advocating 'call the cops immediately', consider this: How hard is it really to plant pictures on someone's computer?

It is laughable how easy it would be for me to frame someone with this kind of material. To think otherwise is naive to the extreme.

This is what you do:

Confront the person who had this filth on their computer, watch their reaction closely. Look for surprise versus indignation. Surprise would indicate innocence and indignation would indicate anger at being caught. If they are indignant, you punch them in the face 10 or 15 times and throw them out a window. If they are surprised, tell them someone has framed them, show them the filth and that you are making an exact image of their hard drive and storing it in a safe place as evidence against the framer. Then conduct the investigation yourself, get the names of all the people that are the victim's enemy. Then repeat this process with all of them, looking for the indignant, punching them, throwing them out the window.

Once that is done, make sure that everyone in the company knows why the person was beaten to a pulp and that the same fate will befall anyone else that does it.

While it does make for an exciting rant about stringing up someone for possible child porn, I have installed software on MANY work systems and have yet to find a need to snoop through personal directories looking at their pictures.
[b]
If the story were real, yes report. I am betting the story is just a bunch of BS and surprised most of you didn't see past the obvious emotional land mines to the fraud that it is.[/b]

The guy clearly not getting enough attention and is trying to drum some up by making this story up.

How do the laws in Canada differ from the US on this, I wonder.

Actually I believe it was he who is without sin.

Which is me, I can't be a sinner because I don't believe in your god. So pass me a couple of large ones and get out of my way.

people who make use of this child porn on their computers, at home in books, in movies, etc. are predators of children.

Be careful how you word things, people don't take kindly to statements like that, you make it sound like we're all doing what this boss did.

As for the boss, he's a criminal, and a predator of children. Blow the whistle on him, loudly! Put him in jail, behind bars where he can't get to our kids. It's not a huge leap from watching kiddie porn on your computer to becoming a predator that sits in chat rooms waiting for his next victim.

I don't need to be a christian to know the difference between right & wrong.

If she does defense and she wins the case her client is not guilty even if they are.

I aren't a lawyer so I don't confuse good and bad with legal and illegal. Professionally when she represents someone her judgement of whether they deserve to win their case is suspended, no matter how vile they might be.

There are lots of ethical people who are lawyers , they all bin them when they enter court.

And that my friend is also a fact.

and as many others to sit with you as witnesses while the authorities are contacted. Write down the name of anyone who objects, after all there must be a reason.

Don't touch anything, a tech is capable of planting the evidence given enough freedom and you don't want the real guilty party whoever it might be to get off.

It could be someone else using the bosses computer, the forensics boys will sort that out. Those boys, make us look like grandma waving a mouse about.

If it's regular porn, report it to HR because it's a violation of company policy.
If it's child porn, report it to the police because it's a violation of the LAW and decency.

I don't know what the problem is here.

Call the police or the RCMP-done.(Canadain)
Once the authorities are on site they will probably lockdown all workstations and servers until a complete forensic investigation has been completed.

1. You need to find out what the company's policy is because of two reasons - it will tell you who to contact if you find it and how they deal with it. As an example my employer (Canadian military) will fire the boss and turn him over to the civilian police.
2. If no policy contact your IT security officer. Ask them to investigate saying he was doing a security audit and discovered the child porn. This would meet both your moral and legal requirements.
3. If no IT security officer get, either, an outside lawyer or report it to the company legal department (anonymously if necessary).
4. It is very important to report also to protect yourself in case the boss gets caught down the road. If they discovered that you had accessed those pictures and failed to report it you could be leaving yourself open to legal actions. Using my employer as an example, you could be looking at being fined, your job put on probation or possibly being fired with no pension/severance.

totally agree. If the tech is doing their job, or not and finds a problem then I agree it's good if they stop these people. From their perspective though, they'd possibly damage their own careers, which I guess is where the morality comes in. for me, there's no question, but then again, I haven't done that job for many years.
Think the issue of having kiddie porn on a machine no matter where it is, is wrong, and should be reported. Whomever finds that should be reporting it, no argument there from me.
The tech snooping and perhaps using that sort of thing as an excuse, given the minority that have these images, means the the majority might have to be snooped upon.
For me, I don't have anything on a work computer that I would not want anyone to see, however it could get out of hand, couldn't it?
Kind of moves into the discussion of finding porn on computers and sacking people because of it, and whether that's right, then maybe the same applies to rude jokes that some people might find offensive... An egotistical techie would have a field day, hey? I think these sorts of problems these days have gone from people using their intelligence to sort them out to having to almost sign away any sense of individuality and sense of humour away before starting a new job.
Before anyone says anything, I agree the paedophile should be shopped no matter what... Just interested in the knock on effect of such actions.

One clown was downloading entire sites. He was into ebony. The head of HR was young, female and of african descent. :D

He didn't get sacked for offending her though, he got sacked because he was not doing his job.

Didn't know much either, I mean we were on a proxy for f's sake. I'd have sacked him for being too stupid.

You have no real privacy at work, doesn't have to be porn, could be TR. :D

I'm reading the C# and .NET articles boss.
Honest

I can understand not minding looking at pictures of naked ladies, makes perfect sense if there's a shortage of actual ones.

I can't understand being dumb enough to do it at work though, you might as well p:ss in the corner of the boss' office.

about anything suspicious, and what little we were given states the exact opposite.

The "internet tech" only states that he is installing a new software package.

He does not state why he is snooping in his bosses personal pictures or give anything to validate his time spent snooping through his bosses computer. There was no talk at all about being suspicious of his bosses activity.

I still do not buy this as anything more than to push the discussion out and get the writer some face time.

If we ignore the logic of the tech should be fired for snooping through company assets, we get to the point of pics he THINKS MIGHT be girls under 18. Are they really under 18, and are they actually porn? We had a discussion on here where someone found (again, on a bosses computer? I see a trend?) underage girls in swimwear. Inappropriate, but not illegal?

If there is VALID concern that the PICTURES are indeed illegal, as I said elsewhere, get off the system NOW and call HR. Don't do anything until you have a witness, and even then don't do anything but call the authorities. Like I also said, I would even be afraid to make a disk image for evidence as I do not know what the legal aspects of that are, because now YOU are duplicating illegal material.

...there's an oxymoron.

As for the "scenario"; make an image of the HD and report it to whomever YOU think will have your back.

At the company I worked at previously, this type of thing was taken very seriously (ANY pornographic pictures were grounds for dismissal).

However, there were CLEAR WRITTEN guidelines that spelled this out and everyone in the company had to sign their name that they had recieved and read the guidelines. A company without clear written guidelines would get eaten alive by the sharks, errr...lawyers for the defense. And there were clear written policies regarding many things one was permitted to do with the company's property (e.g. the computers, printers, phones, etc.).

A big company concerned with it's reputation would likely take action against the "boss"; a small sole-proprietor/partnership company may try to sweep it under the rug. There's not enough info in the scenario to make a call on who to/where to report the offense.

Silence is obviously not the proper course of action - the individual would have to make the decision on whom he could trust and report the issue to that person/entity.

I work for a government agency, rule number one, if you find anyone breaking the law than you must turn them in. If you are found to have known and not turned them in you shall be fired.

Makes it kind of simple.

Other than the guy who suggested taking him behind the woodshed and giving him a blanket party, we're only talking about reporting him, and as others have said allowing the investigation to begin.

I think this is ethically the absolute minimum that can be expected of a citizen. And if you are truly a christian and not just using it as a catch phrase, you should be ashamed.

Ethics, morality, and law are three distincly
separate concepts.
As some have noted, the Bible offers guidance
on morality. Ethics and the law may also
offer guidance, but in any event morality
follows some sort of personal code.
Ethics generally applies to a formal or
informal code that applies to a profession.
Seen in that light and the total thread of
this discussion, I would say that the profession
of IT needs some work in the ethics department.
There seems to be a wide variation of
viewpoints on the right and wrong of this
situation because of a lack of an ethical
code for IT.
Legally, in the US, there is no middle ground
for this scenario. As stated, you have
found child porn on the computer. You
are legally obliged to report it to the
police.
As a practical matter, it does matter how
you found it and how far you went with
examining the computer. If you found it in
an illegal search and/or continued to look
for evidence, your own morality comes into
question and you have also broken the law.
An immoral person might want to consider
some sort of cover up. If you found it by
accident, you should try to document it
with a print out and immediately stop
looking. Let the police handle it through
appropriate search and seizure procedures, in
other words a search warrant.
Copying the hard drive was suggested, but
that is also illegal without a warrant unless
you have been instructed to do so. Such
instructions may actually be illegal under
laws governing the 4th amendment rights to
privacy, without a warrant. This would
depend on how company or public agency
policy is written and how it is applied on
a daily basis.

Morally, I find this situation repugnant.
I would also find the loss of work less than
desirable. But there is always work for a
competent IT person.
Ethically, it is clear that the IT profession
can not police itself. The variation of
viewpoints shows that. We need a code of
ethics that covers these situations.
Legally, it is a no brainer. Report it.
Unless of course you don't want to be
caught engaging in other illegal activities
you are engaged in.
As a practical matter, you should report
it directly to the police, and immediately
after that report it to a company official
perferably HR, compliance officer or legal
staff, just to give them a heads up.
If you are fired, then you hire a lawyer.
And of course document your actions with
written notes.

Leaving it on the machine allows whomever put it there to distribute it further. Would that be the right thing to do?

Let's face it, the true criminal is whomever produced those images. That said, if this 'boss' were in those kiddie porn images, I would have walked out of his office carrying at least the harddrive with me and gone straight to the law.

When I worked at a mid-sized corporation, I discovered that our interm company President was surfing "normal" porn sites. I notified my boss, who notified his boss (CFO) who just happened to have a pet peeve against the President.

Bottom line: Within two months, EVERYONE who was involved with the issue including me, my manager, the CFO and various other company officers who tried to use the situation to remove the President got canned by the parent company.

As has been cited so many times already here, if a crime has been committed, it must be reported; no question. If a breach of policy has been committed, it must be reported; no question.
Reported to whom, that is the question. It depends entirely on the organization and its organizational structure. Perhaps you report it to a superior, perhaps to the police, perhaps to a superior of the "perp", etc.. As for the copying of evidence....stupid to say the least; at least initially. Wait to hear the comments, suggestions, orders, etc. of whom ever you report the crime to. If they are in left field and take illegal action such as deleting evidence to save someones ass, they are guilty of aiding and abetting and then it is time to report to the police. They can have their IT forensics retrieve whatever data they can....short of scrubbing the disk, their will be enough left on the disk to recover anything that has been deleted.....

How can you do your job as in prosecute the innocent or defend the guilty if you let you personal ethical convictions about right and wrong interfere with your professional ones, ask your lawyer friends and relations.

It's not my fault the world isn't as simple as you believe.
A lawyer who can't suspend their judgement on right and wrong isn't a bad lawyer, just a crap one.

As THE I.T. support person, I have found Porn on desktops, and reported it to upper management. Mostly, it fell on deaf ears. By pushing the issue, I would have brought unwanted attention to the "problem". I believe HR should be made aware of the situation.
Most HR personnel, even though they say they are on your side, will protect the company. If the HR person has any guts, He/she would discretely mention it to the manager, and have him remove it.
I also have the case where the boss brings in his laptop from home, filled with "PORN" pictures. When you are asked to update software, or service packs, it put me in an awkward spot. If you refuse to work on it (for higher ethical or moral grounds), you are insubordinate.
In these cases, I am not talking "illegal" porn. The question must be asked, are you willing to risk your job to maintain the higher ground. Sure, the Manager may be punished, but you may be as well, because you made it an issue. Most companies cannot handle the scandal.
My personal account was when a female boss brought in boxes of company documents from home. While sorting through them, I found a "Personal Massage Product". I discretely put it back in the box, finished sorting, and returned the box. I still think I made the correct choice.