Wellington  - The New Zealand government department responsible for issues to do with young people cannot receive any emails with the word "teen" in them because they are automatically blocked as potentially pornographic, a news report said Wednesday.

David Habershorn, spokesman for the Ministry for Social Development, which has responsibility for youth affairs, told the Dominion Post newspaper an email firewall blocked the word because it was often used in advertising for adult websites.

He said the ministry used "best practice anti-spam technology and processes" to filter 70,000 emails it received every day. (dpa)