New .xxx Domain for Porn Sites

Those having difficulty locating porn sites on the Internet will soon benefit from yesterday’s decision to create a .xxx domain.

New .xxx domain will be reserved for porn (Computerworld – IDG)

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday approved a plan for pornographic Web sites to use new addresses that end with “.xxx,” something numerous groups and U.S. political leaders have been seeking to try to prevent sexually explicit content from landing on the screens of young Internet users.

ICANN, the nonprofit organization that oversees technical matters related to the Internet, said it will begin negotiations with ICM Registry Inc. to resolve commercial and technical issues associated with operating the .xxx top-level domain (TLD).

The decision in favor of establishing a virtual red-light district for providers of pornographic content and their customers represents a U-turn for ICANN, which rejected ICM’s first application for the .xxx TLD in November 2000. Reasons for the objection are published in a document available on ICANN’s Web site.

I’m not sure that people will turn away from blogs and other high quality sites to view pornography, though.

FILED UNDER: Uncategorized
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Jay says:

    I think it is a good idea. It should be required.

  2. Rob M says:

    The only way to have problems locating porn on the internet it to not be able to turn your computer on.

    Hey but the .xxx domain would help with blocks and parental controls.

  3. dude says:

    “I’m not sure that people will turn away from blogs and other high quality sites to view pornography, though.”

    Hahaha. Don’t be silly. The online pornography industry nets several billion a year…

  4. Just Me says:

    I can’t believe anyone would have trouble finding porn on the internet.

    Although one thing good I can see from this, is that parents will have an easy time doing filters etc for their kids.

    My issue is who is going to decide what is and isn’t porn-I mean some of it is obvious, but there is this blurry gray area in the middle that has little agreement.

  5. carpeicthus says:

    It should be limited to things that are well, “XXX.” There is a lot less potential for censoring valuable things if you have to decide between what is XXX and what is NC-17 than between say, what is racy but valuable and what is “too racy.”