Patna railway station blocks access to porn sites after reports of free Wi-Fi misuse

Patna: Authorities at Bihar’s Patna Railway Station have blocked access to porn sites in its free Wi-Fi service at the station, officials said on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_3075840” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] “We have acted after it was found that free Wi-Fi service was used for opening porn sites at Patna railway station and also in view of reports of last week,” Arvind Razak, the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of East Central Railway (ECR), told IANS on Wednesday. The development comes 10 days after IANS first reported that Patna Railway Station tops in terms of internet search, using the free Wi-Fi service, but mostly to view porn. Razak said use of the free Wi-Fi service to watch porn at the railway station was taken seriously by the concerned top railway officials, and it was decided to block the sites. “Initially, we have blocked selected porn sites, and gradually all such sites will be blocked at the railway station,” he said. When IANS reported that more than any other railway station in the country, where free Wi-Fi service was launched, Patna goes for most internet search, particularly for porn, public sector undertaking RailTel had denied the report. The Wi-Fi service in Patna station was launched last month and it is the first station in Bihar to have internet facility. More than 200 trains pass through it daily. According to officials, people in Patna station use free Wi-Fi to search Youtube followed by Wikipedia. “More than anything, porn sites have been watched and downloaded at the station,” an official had said earlier. Some people also use free Wi-Fi to download apps and Bollywood and Hollywood films. At present, RailTel is providing 1 gigabyte Wi-Fi at the Patna station but plans are to increase it to 10 gigabytes due to the slow speed of internet in view of many people using the facility. To date free Wi-Fi facility has been launched at 23 railway stations in the country. The government has said the facility will be introduced at all major railway stations over the next three years. The service has been provided under ‘Railwire’, the retail broadband distribution model of RailTel.