Is Parliament Trying to Keep Parliamentarians Clean? Unofficial Browsing Boom Revealed
Behind the Scenes of the “Parliamentary Office” Surveillance
Apparently the MPs’ tech team grabbed some serious bulk data on what’s popping up at the very top of UK politics – louder than the rising gossip about the so‑called “shakedown” of the PM. The Press Association reported that, late last year, about 160 per day of subscriptions were shot up the network trying to reach adult content.
Over the summer after the election, a whopping 24,473 attempts were logged from parliamentary-connected devices, according to Freedom‑of‑Information filings.
While it may sound like a snappy fact table, an ongoing scandal spun the laptops’ reputation. PM Theresa May was already skidding over sexual misconduct allegations when a former friend‑turned‑minister, Damian Green, was hauled away for allegedly burying evidence of pornography on his Westminster computer in 2008.
Tech Snapshot
- Parliament’s network is a one‑stop shop for MPs, Lords and their staff.
- Described by officials as “mostly unintentional,” the attempts have been on the decline.
- In 2016, 113,208 attempts were blocked, down from 213,020 in 2015.
- All porn sites are actively blocked by the system, no accidental clicks make it through.
- Personal gadgets also surface in this data when people login to the guest Wi-Fi.
In short, parliament keeps the image clean, even if the keyboard’s whisper says otherwise—your memes may be visible, but the ministers’ “secret” browsers keep the censorship strong.
