College students today have access to all types of pornography thanks to easy access to the internet. Pornography is one of the biggest forms of online entertainment, generating revenue rivaling the online earnings of the NBA, NFL, and MLB put together. To the college or university student, viewing internet pornography may seem like a harmless activity, one that has little chance of affecting the student's education. But that is not always the case. Pornography can lead to college or university disciplinary charges. Many students do not realize viewing or possession of pornography or pornography-related content on the college or university campus or using college or university online access can lead to school discipline up to suspension or expulsion.
Prohibitions on College Pornography
Your college or university is very likely to have specific prohibitions in its student code of conduct regarding viewing or possession of pornography. See, for example, the Code of Student Conduct at the University of Louisville, specifically prohibiting possessing child pornography. See, for another example, the Student Conduct Code at Colorado State University specifically prohibiting viewing, placing, or posting pornography in public venues or viewing illegal pornography. If your school's student code of conduct does not have an express prohibition, you may find that prohibition in your school's computer-use policy. See, for example, the Acceptable Use Policy at the University of Florida, stating, "You may not use university IT resources to access or store pornographic material, with limited exceptions when pre-approval has been granted for legitimate research purpose." Violating these policies can lead to serious disciplinary charges. If you face disciplinary charges related to pornography, get the premier representation you need. Retain national school discipline defense advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team now.
How Pornography Leads to Discipline
School officials generally have better things to do than to monitor student use of computers. But college and university IT departments may have monitoring software that alerts IT officials to student searches for, and viewing, sharing, and downloading of, pornographic materials. You could, in other words, face school disciplinary charges simply because you used a school computer or other device, or an internet browser operating under your school email account, in ways that led your school's IT systems to suspect pornography activities. But allegations of the possession or viewing of pornography can arise in other ways including:
- a college or university roommate, study partner, or other student or school employee notices pornography or materials looking like pornography on your computer screen while you are using it or when you step away, and objects to the display of pornography in their presence;
- a college or university roommate, friend, classmate, or other student borrows your computer or other device and, in doing so, notices pornographic materials on it or search history for pornographic websites, and objects to the material;
- another student shares pornographic materials with you or attempts to do so and later reports your receipt, possession, and use of those materials in the course of the student's own disciplinary proceedings;
- an instructor, advisor, counselor, or other school staff member learns from other students or sources that you may possess or be viewing pornographic materials and objects to that activity or believes that discipline will assist you; or
- you purposefully or even accidentally share pornographic material or material that appears to be pornographic with another student, an instructor, or another member of the school community who objects and reports you for discipline.
The above examples do not even account for deliberate sexual exploitation that some students undertake or face allegations of having undertaken, like revenge porn. Revenge porn is sexually explicit images, movies, or any other type of video content of someone that is watched or distributed without that person's consent. People who distribute this type of content do so with the express intent of hurting the person depicted in this content. Colleges and universities routinely construe their sexual misconduct policies to prohibit revenge porn. See, for example, the Nonconsensual Pornography on Campus statement of the State University of New York specifically as to revenge porn.
Pornography School Discipline
College and university student codes of conduct generally authorize disciplinary officials to impose any appropriate discipline for student misconduct, including pornography violations, from warning to reprimand, loss of privileges, suspension, or even expulsion from the school. Because pornography generally involves computer and internet use, school officials may also take other measures against the offending student, to preserve the integrity of their electronic systems. Those measures could include blocking or restricting computer and account access, searching the student's electronic activity, examining that activity for other violations of school rules and policies, and referring the student for discipline before school officials. The University of Florida's Acceptable Use Policy referred to above, for example, authorizes university IT officials to:
- suspend, block or restrict access to an account when it appears necessary to do so;
- investigate alleged or potential violations of law or policy including, without limitation, state, federal, or local law, or university or Board of Governors rules, regulations, policies, or collective bargaining agreements;
- investigate any asserted, threatened or potential complaint or grievance filed or credibly alleged pursuant to law or university or Board of Governors rules, regulations, policies, or collective bargaining agreements, or subject of law enforcement review or investigation;
- protect the university from liability or disruption; and
- refer suspected violations of law to appropriate law enforcement agencies for further investigation or action.
How Pornography Can Affect Careers
Any school reprimand relating to pornography can cause the student to lose references and recommendation letters, internships and clinic placements, and other perks that strong academic performance and good character deserves. Any school suspension for pornography can lead to lost credit, delayed graduation, and loss of graduate school and employment opportunities. A school expulsion can mean loss of the student's entire investment in the education plus acceleration of school loans, loss of student housing, and loss of access to transportation, medical care, and other facilities. School discipline for pornography can also affect family, friend, and mentor relationships. If you do manage to hold onto your degree after getting into trouble for porn-related incidents on campus, the presence of this information on your permanent record could make it hard to advance in your preferred career. Many of the most sought-after jobs, like those in law, finance, medicine, business, and government, do a background check that will pull up your school history. Because pornography typically involves computer misuse, the student with a discipline record for pornography may also find it hard to qualify for security clearances and IT jobs.
Retain an Experienced Attorney Advisor
One key reason that you should work with an experienced attorney is that there may have been extenuating circumstances that caused you to get in trouble. You may legitimately be in a situation where someone is trying to frame you or put you in a position where it looks like you've done something that you haven't. Computers can also leave electronic records that mislead disciplinary officials into believing that the student did something the student did not do. You may need a computer forensic expert on your side that only a skilled and experienced attorney advisor knows how to retain. But even if you engaged in conduct that you now realize may have violated your school's policies, that does not mean that you should or must suffer discipline. Schools generally judge each case on its individual merits. A skilled and experienced school discipline defense attorney will know the assurances the school needs to receive for your best discipline outcome.
Nationwide Student Defense Advisor
When you face disciplinary charges, including charges involving pornography, the school will have the personnel and resources to pursue those charges diligently, as school officials see fit. For your effective defense, you will need to retain an attorney advisor who has substantial experience negotiating with school disciplinary officials in these kinds of misconduct cases. Working with an attorney advisor who doesn't know how to navigate these cases within the academic sphere could place you in a situation where you lose everything. If your school has accused you of committing a pornography-related offense, you need to speak with an experienced attorney advisor who knows exactly how to handle your case and help you present the best defense. National school discipline defense advisor Joseph D. Lento and the team at the Lento Law Firm have years of experience defending students who have been accused of this very type of offense. Contact advisor Lento today at 888-535-3686. Your future depends on it.
