The use of spit hoods and restraint chairs has been put on hold in the Northern Territory by under-siege Chief Minister Adam Giles.

Mr Giles, who has defended comments made in 2010 that, if given control of NT prisons, he would "big concrete hole and put all the bad criminals in there", announced a review of the practices which have drawn widespread condemnation and sparked a royal commission after the ABC's Four Corners program highlighted the mistreatment of young offenders.

The use of restraint chairs has been put on hold by Adam Giles.

The halt on the use of the controversial devices comes after they featured prominently in the Four Corners report into the treatment of youth inmates in the NT youth detention system.

Quizzed on whether the chairs — which bind a prisoner's wrists, ankles, lap, shoulders and ankles — had been brought into service prior to legislation allowing their use, Mr Giles said he would "like to take advice on that".

This afternoon, Mr Giles announced he was pausing the use of the methods.

"Whether the chair is the right thing or not, I'm putting to review. I've stopped its use," he said.

"I've also said with the spit masks, let's stop use of the spit masks until we take advice.

"But I do note, under advice, there are a number of youth detainees who have hepatitis C who spit on officers on a regular occasion."

The announcement comes as a review is also underway in the West Australian juvenile detention system of spit hoods.

"We're actually right in the middle of a process where we're looking at protective masks on staff versus spit hoods but the aim of them is clearly a protection mechanism," WA's Commissioner of Corrective Services, James McMahon, told the ABC.