Email Filtering + Business Email Management

Changes to UK Sexual Offences Act could mean negligent companies face listing on the registry.

The inclusion of email harassment in the revised UK Sexual Offences Act could open companies up to legal troubles, said an industry insider.

The UK Sexual Offences Act 2003 was recently updated to include “improper use of public communications.” Because of this, a person sending sexually harassing emails could be handed a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) and therefore be included on the national sex offender registry.

“It really has tremendous implications for any organisation because the widening of the sexual offenders act could mean employers have vicarious liability,” said Ed Macnair, CEO of internet security firm Marshal. “The person sending is prosecutable, but also the organisation.” He cited one case where a London hospital was held liable in a harassment suit involving members of staff and another in the US where an employee’s wife sued her husband’s firm because they facilitated his child pornography habits.

“You don’t want your chief operating officer on the sexual offender registry because somebody in the company did something,” Macnair said.

Source: ITPro