The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
molly-guard
/mol'ee?gard/, n.
[University of Illinois] A shield to prevent tripping of some Big Red
Switch by clumsy or ignorant hands. Originally used of the plexiglass
covers improvised for the BRS on an IBM 4341 after a programmer's toddler
daughter (named Molly) frobbed it twice in one day. Later generalized to
covers over stop/reset switches on disk drives and networking equipment. In
hardware catalogues, you'll see the much less interesting description ?
guarded button?.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
molly-guard
/mol'ee-gard/ [University of Illinois] A shield to prevent
tripping of some Big Red Switch by clumsy or ignorant hands.
Originally used of the plexiglass covers improvised for the
BRS on an IBM 4341 after a programmer's toddler daughter
(named Molly) frobbed it twice in one day. Later generalised
to covers over stop/reset switches on disk drives and
networking equipment.
[Jargon File]