Awkward! Cameron's porn problem moves in-House as staff binge on smut

Awkward! David Cameron's porn problem goes in-House as staff binge on smut
In the shadow of Westminster Abbey too... tut-tut

MPs, Lords and staff at the Houses of Parliament tried to access pornographic material online an astonishing 300,000 times in the last year, according to official records.

The figures obtained by the Huffington Post under the Freedom of Information Act show the number of individual requests made for adult material peaked at a whopping 114,844 in November 2012.

The figures, which remained as high as 55,552 for the month of April 2013, are accounted for by the estimated 5,000 government employees who ply their trade in the landmark London buildings.

The figures will be an embarrassment to Prime Minister David Cameron who is on a one man mission to crack down on easy access to pornography in UK homes and businesses.

The PM wants to push through a controversial block on 18+ material at ISP level, with punters having to opt in with their network if they wish to watch the odd skin flick.

'Research'

Parliamentary officials tried to excuse the number of requests by saying it was likely the cause of pages refreshing automatically. We'll have to remember that one next time we're busted.

A Commons spokesperson said: "We do not consider the data to provide an accurate representation of the number of purposeful requests made by network users.

"A user may access a site that contains optional or automatic links to others, or other "pop-up" arrangements, which are recorded as requests. We are not going to restrict Parliamentarians' ability to carry out research," the spokeswoman added.

Research? Try that one next time your significant other checks your browser history and see how far you get, folks.

Via BBC

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.