NEW YORK (MainStreet) – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved .xxx as a top-level domain on Friday, clearing the way for it to join the likes of .com, .org and .gov in a move one that one company claims will help clean up the Web.
The top-level domain, which will be reserved for adult websites, comes after years of lobbying and bureaucracy. ICM Registry, the company that proposed the domain and has poured millions into getting it approved, will sell the .xxx addresses for about $60 a year, and it claims to have already accepted pre-reservations for more than 300,000 domain names.
ICM has been lobbying for the .xxx domain since 2004, arguing that a special domain for porn sites would make it easier to keep children away from adult content.
“No one can ‘inadvertently’ surf to a .xxx adult site that may have an innocuous name to the left of the dot, as is very much the case in .com and other [top-level domains],” ICM CEO Stuart Lawley said. In addition, .xxx domains will carry a common labeling system to better enable web filtering, and the company has also promised that $10 from every domain purchase will go to a child-protection nonprofit.
Though it’s certainly true that a dedicated top-level domain will prevent people from accidentally surfing to adult sites with innocuous-looking web addresses, it’s not as if the old .com sites are suddenly going to disappear. While the domain has been repeatedly described as a “red light district” for the Internet, ICM itself acknowledges that existing porn sites are not being forced to move to this domain. So unless the adult industry’s worst fears are realized and existing .com porn sites are forced to switch over to a .xxx domain, the new system would not make it any easier for parents to keep their kids away from adult content already on the Web. Indeed, adult industry groups have questioned ICM’s suggestion that the .xxx domain is needed to protect children from pornography.
“Our industry is responsible, and all our websites are responsible about keeping kids out of productions and labeling [adult sites],” argues Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry trade association. “They say it’s for child protection. It’s not, it’s a money grab.”
Duke echoed the sentiments of many in the industry who say that the introduction of the domain represents nothing more than a shakedown, arguing that existing adult websites with a .com domain will be forced to register their website a second time as a .xxx to protect their trademark.
Regardless of the impact on the porn industry, it seems that the only way the new domain will make the Internet safer for kids is if all adult sites switched to sites ending in .xxx. Duke notes that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had drafted a bill that would have mandated such a migration back in 2006, when the proposal was initially being considered by ICANN; while the approval of the domain once again raises the specter of such a mandate, she expressed uncertainty about whether such legislation would pass constitutional muster.
Absent legislation, any large-scale migration to the new domain would be strictly voluntary. But while the ICM website predicts that the new domain “will become the preferred domain name of choice by both the consumer and provider of online adult entertainment,” it’s hard to believe that the adult industry will willingly switch over to domains that cost about six times as much to register.
In other words, this doesn’t mean that all the adult .com sites will someday become .xxx sites – it just means that we’re getting some new adult sites that are more upfront about what’s inside.
The top-level domain, which will be reserved for adult websites, comes after years of lobbying and bureaucracy. ICM Registry, the company that proposed the domain and has poured millions into getting it approved, will sell the .xxx addresses for about $60 a year, and it claims to have already accepted pre-reservations for more than 300,000 domain names.
ICM has been lobbying for the .xxx domain since 2004, arguing that a special domain for porn sites would make it easier to keep children away from adult content.
“No one can ‘inadvertently’ surf to a .xxx adult site that may have an innocuous name to the left of the dot, as is very much the case in .com and other [top-level domains],” ICM CEO Stuart Lawley said. In addition, .xxx domains will carry a common labeling system to better enable web filtering, and the company has also promised that $10 from every domain purchase will go to a child-protection nonprofit.
Though it’s certainly true that a dedicated top-level domain will prevent people from accidentally surfing to adult sites with innocuous-looking web addresses, it’s not as if the old .com sites are suddenly going to disappear. While the domain has been repeatedly described as a “red light district” for the Internet, ICM itself acknowledges that existing porn sites are not being forced to move to this domain. So unless the adult industry’s worst fears are realized and existing .com porn sites are forced to switch over to a .xxx domain, the new system would not make it any easier for parents to keep their kids away from adult content already on the Web. Indeed, adult industry groups have questioned ICM’s suggestion that the .xxx domain is needed to protect children from pornography.
Duke echoed the sentiments of many in the industry who say that the introduction of the domain represents nothing more than a shakedown, arguing that existing adult websites with a .com domain will be forced to register their website a second time as a .xxx to protect their trademark.
Regardless of the impact on the porn industry, it seems that the only way the new domain will make the Internet safer for kids is if all adult sites switched to sites ending in .xxx. Duke notes that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had drafted a bill that would have mandated such a migration back in 2006, when the proposal was initially being considered by ICANN; while the approval of the domain once again raises the specter of such a mandate, she expressed uncertainty about whether such legislation would pass constitutional muster.
Absent legislation, any large-scale migration to the new domain would be strictly voluntary. But while the ICM website predicts that the new domain “will become the preferred domain name of choice by both the consumer and provider of online adult entertainment,” it’s hard to believe that the adult industry will willingly switch over to domains that cost about six times as much to register.
In other words, this doesn’t mean that all the adult .com sites will someday become .xxx sites – it just means that we’re getting some new adult sites that are more upfront about what’s inside.
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