Over two-hundred-thousand illicit website blocked

The National Information and Communication Technology Authority, NICTA, and the Office of Censorship are working around the clock to block illicit online content in Papua New Guinea, with more than 200,000 sites now on the national block list.

Speaking to NBC News, NICTA Chief Executive Officer, Lume Polume said the regulator continues to receive reports of unsuitable websites from the Office of Censorship. Once received, the lists are forwarded to all internet service providers, including Starlink, to be blocked from their networks.

Polume said the process is ongoing. Major sites have been shut down, but new ones continue to appear due to high demand.

"Every time you shut one down, some other sites pop up. As and when we get those requests, we continue to supply those sites down so that they continue to take action on that. It’s not something we do one-off, it’s an ongoing process," Polume said.

Because of the volume, the block list is now too large for flash drives. Instead, ISPs access it through a secure online portal and download updates directly to filter content on their networks.

Polume thanked the industry for its cooperation, saying the support from operators has been critical to the success of the program.

Chief Censor Jim Abani said the joint effort is guided by NEC Decision 265 of 2023, which tasked three organizations to work together. Implementation began in 2024.

Since then, the Office of Censorship has developed online classification guidelines. To date, 10 listings containing 13,010 sites have been submitted to NICTA. For 2025 alone, six listings have been sent.

Out of 33,000 sites identified by the Office, about 3,000 had already been blocked in other countries.

Abani said the turnaround time for blocking depends on how quickly NICTA disseminates the information to ISPs. The collaboration between the two agencies is a direct one-on-one arrangement.

The Chief Censor confirmed that the majority of the over 200,000 blocked sites are adult pornography. The Office is also seeing frequent cases of child sexual abuse material and scam sites, which are referred to other relevant agencies.

He said tracking new illicit content is a major challenge as technology evolves and blocked sites often reappear under different names.

To address capacity issues, the Office is upskilling staff and training them to use AI tools to help classify content and reduce workload.

“We have now come across the normal way of conducting our awareness to schools and the public is shifted we're not shifting to online safety, we talk about online safety, that is the new approach that we are now taking. We are continuing to conduct awareness to the public especially targeting the young children because our concern is the mindset of the young population," the Chief Censor said.

Abani said the goal is to protect citizens, especially children, from exposure to harmful digital content.