Fijians are reportedly spending a significant amount of time viewing pornography. In the past three months, access to pornographic websites has consumed 626.13 terabytes (TB) of data, which is equivalent to reading around 100 million books during the same timeframe.
Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica, who is also the chairman of the National Taskforce to Address Pornography, described pornography as “a silent epidemic” that is influencing the digital landscape in Fiji and affecting countless individuals. He pointed out that last year, the United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) recorded more than 3,600 cases involving child sexual abuse material.
Kamikamica emphasized that the data reveal a disturbing trend, noting that one network provider reported that a significant portion of web traffic—626.13 TB—was dedicated to adult content and pornographic material, making it one of the top ten categories of data usage. To provide perspective, he stated that this amount is comparable to the data equivalent of a library containing 100 million books or a movie collection that would take over 150 years to watch continuously.
He underlined the serious implications of these statistics, asserting that while it’s challenging to quantify the overall proportion of adult content on the internet, the industry remains vast. “It’s a silent epidemic that is shaping our digital world and impacting countless lives,” he said.
Kamikamica highlighted that this issue is not confined to Fiji but is a global concern. Last year, 245 electronic service providers worldwide filed more than 35 million reports of suspected Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). According to INHOPE, 83 percent of reported child abuse victims in 2023 were between the ages of three and 13. Furthermore, Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database indicated that in 2018, 65 percent of unidentified victims were female, while 93 percent of the visual offenses involved male perpetrators.
He concluded by noting that the formation of the national taskforce demonstrates the Coalition Government’s commitment to addressing this pressing issue, marking a proactive step towards safeguarding communities and protecting vulnerable individuals.