AiBU to think I'm going to get the sack!!!

[somortified78]

Ex partner (an IT bod) came over tonight to help me setup the broadband i've specifically moved to, to get better parental controls as very innocent DS (11) is going to secondary school in Sept and I dont want him to be able to google 'rude' stuff . Ex had laptop. I watched over his shoulder as he fiddled around, setting up and testing the parental controls. Of course, the testing involved typing in the word 'porn' and seeing what websites he could still open and promptly closing them. Then it suddenly hit me: I'd given him my WORK LAPTOP. And I'll add, I work in a school!! So, effectively, my work laptop has been used to access porn sites! All be it for less than a second. All be it in totally innocent circumstances (parental controls and broadband pages in the history too).

I cant sleep. I'm not techy. Im sure my school logs stuff. I'm going to get sacked!

I'm so fricking stupid!

blackbirdmilkshake

I assumed they were just using laptop to set up the broadband controls for all computers using that network, not setting up something specific to OPs laptop. I think you'll be fine. I'd go into IT to explain and ask them to check it over to make sure nothing has been downloaded etc. I wouldn't worry at all though.

Blackbird - quite right but DS doesnt use the laptop. He has games consoles and an IPAD that he could potentially use to search for stuff - not that i think he would yet but may well do when he hits secondary school and hears stuff. The whole point of this failed exercise was to make it so that anyyhing connected to the broadband - consoles/IPADS etc would be blocked from accessing sites. Stupidly my only IT device to set that up is my work laptop and even more stupidly the danger only occured to me after about 5 minutes of trying.

I assumed they were just using laptop to set up the broadband controls for all computers using that network, not setting up something specific to OPs laptop

the OP doesn't read like that but I hope you're right, for OP's sake

AdjustableWench - lolling. That is a worry!

Thanks all of you. I may well sleep now. Xxxxxx

I didnt make it clear blackbird. I was incoherent with panic. I can see how it reads that way.

A safe bet for you would be to delete all history/ cache and then go straight to the IT people at work to have a thorough check up BEFORE you logon to work. Other option is to simply work as usual and speak to no one - am sure nobody will contact you in this regard!

Something along these lines but much worse happened to one of my teacher friends (he managed - through a stupid but innocent lack of thought about possible interpretations of terms - to do a Google search that returned not just pornographic results, but also a lot of references to 'teen sex'/'barely legal' type stuff). I managed to persuade him to go tell IT, and they massively reassured him but also told him that he'd done the right thing in flagging it up himself, as it would have come up in their network monitoring. His case was much more dramatic because it hinted towards underage porn (he was also actually at work when he did the search) but I think you might find that, although it probably isn't really necessary in your case, a quick visit to your IT office will put your mind at rest. If you take this option, then definitely don't clear the history first - don't come clean while still making it look like you've got something to hide!

I knew most "rude stuff" at 11 with no google, internet, facebook.

My mum thoguht butter wouldnt melt.

Id wager your DS knows most things.....like he'd tell you what he knew.

Just sent the IT department a note saying you wanted to inform them that on the DD/MM/YYYY between XXpm and XX pm you had a technician at your house to instal and test a new parental control and all devices present in the house , including your work pc, have been tested with the random searches of sexual and gaming website.s

So - I messaged an IT guy at work. Told him what happened: installed new broadband and setting up and testing parental controls by seeing how effective they were at blocking inappropriate websites. Told him i had deleted all history but have screen grab of the broadband parental control setup and websites and any access they have to logs on the machine will confirm activity.

Guy said it sounded very innocent and while they do have logs that sometimes pick up stuff like that, if anything is flagged from my machine he'll pass on the conversation.

Said if it does flag it will be when it syncs with the network.

Still feel mortified but relieved.

I also feel angry actually that parents have to go to this trouble to protect their families from this stuff onlibe. I wish it was simpler. Wish you could just tick a box when you ordered broadband to say that you want access blocked and the company did it for you.

Thanks so much all of you for your great advice!

Why are you considering allowing your child acres to your work computer?

RTT

She's not Aunt Jane, if you read the thread you'll see she was setting up her broadband parental controls.
I work in the NHS I can't even look up some sites related to my work if it's related to genitalia! Crazy