24,000 attempts made to access pornographic sites from UK parliament

Over 24,000 attempts were made to access pornographic websites from the UK Parliament since the general election, according to official data.

An average of 160 requests were made per day from computers and devices connected to the internet network used by UK MPs, peers and staff between June and October 2017, The Guardian reports.

The news emerges amid a sex scandal roiling Westminster which led to UK Prime Minister Theresa May sacking her de facto second-in-command Damian Green after his ‘misleading’ comments about police finding pornography on computers in his office in 2008.

Green denied that he had downloaded or viewed the material.

Most of the 24,000 attempts were not deliberate, parliamentary authorities said.

Attempts to access pornographic sites from the parliament also decreased in recent years from 213,020 in 2015 to 113,208 in 2016.

 “All pornographic websites are blocked by parliament’s computer network. The vast majority of attempts to access them are not deliberate. The data shows requests to access websites, not visits to them,” a parliamentary spokesperson told The Guardian.

“There are 8,500 computers on the parliamentary network, which are used by MPs, peers, their staff and staff of both Houses. This data also covers personal devices used when logged on to parliament’s guest wifi.”

The network filter also noted 2,751,755 attempts to access blocked websites between January to October, 2017.