Bored at work and need to kill some time? You could opt for a game of Wordle or solitaire.
But perhaps it would not be the wisest idea to log onto your work computer and search for adult websites – especially if you work for the taxpayer.
However, that appears to be exactly what some local authority staff have done at work in recent months.
We asked five local councils in the north and north-east of Scotland how many times their firewalls have prevented requests from users wanting to log onto four popular adult websites in 2024.
Perhaps to the relief of taxpayers in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray, those councils all told us there were no firewall blocks, indicating no attempts had been made to access the pornographic material.
However, the same cannot be said for Angus and Highland Councils.
21 attempts blocked
Angus blocked six attempts – all for Pornhub – while Highland blocked 15 attempts – nine for Pornhub and six for Xvideos.
If council staff were trying to access porn during their workday it would be highly unprofessional – but there might be more to it than that.
As with other large organisations, local councils program their firewalls to automatically block such requests from any devices.
So that could mean the culprits on these occasions are members of the public using open-access wi-fi networks provided by councils.
Or it could be down to the actions of mischievous schoolchildren or perhaps visitors to libraries and community centres.
Perhaps we can be encouraged by the fact that the firewalls — which also block gambling websites — are working effectively.
Staff were performing checks
We asked Angus Council what triggered the blocks.
A spokeswoman said: “The six occasions that adult websites were blocked from staff computers were caused by our IT engineering staff testing that our blocking site systems were working effectively at various points throughout the year.”
Highland Council was unable to be so specific.
A spokesman said: “The data provided was for staff computers in the last six months.”
We also asked the councils about which websites its staff most frequently visit.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, corporate websites that provide much of councils’ IT infrastructure – like Microsoft, Google and Adobe – featured prominently.
And there was absolutely no sign of workers slacking – unlike when the Scottish Government answered a similar query in the summer.
Their freedom of information response showed staff often visited websites devoted to football, Formula One racing and online shopping – as well as platforms such as TikTok.