ICANN, the authority that administers top-level domains on the internet (the last part of the address, like .com, .net, .org, etc.) has now approved a “.xxx” domain for internet pornography:
Adult-oriented sites, a $12 billion industry, probably could begin buying “xxx” addresses as early as fall or winter depending on ICM’s plans, ICANN spokesman Kieran Baker said.
ICM contends the “xxx” Web addresses, which it plans to sell for $60 a year, will protect children from online smut if adult sites voluntarily adopt the suffix so filtering software used by families can more effectively block access to those sites. The $60 price is roughly ten times higher than prices other companies charge for dot-com names.
“It will further help to protect kids,” said John Morris, staff counsel at the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology. Morris predicted some adult sites will choose to buy “xxx” Web addresses but others will continue to use dot-com.
Sounds like a good idea, right? Wrong. There is no enforcement on these top-level domains (notice the word “voluntarily”). Basically this amounts to ICANN horning in on a piece of the porn action.
Why so? Suppose you’re Larry Flynt and you own Hustler.com. You now have to go out and buy Hustler.xxx to keep others from infringing on your brand. For the same reason, and for reasons of maintaining existing hyperlinks and brand visibility, you’ll continue to run Hustler.com. It’s easy enough to put an entry page (“Warning, smut within! You must be 18 to enter!”) on the .com site that redirects to the .xxx site, so there’s no extra website administration involved here.
And it doesn’t help protect the kids, either. True, porn filters can now be easily set to reject all .xxx addresses, either at the browser level or at the ISP level (I predict “Christian” internet providers that will filter .xxx in such a manner), but unscrupulous pornographers will still put their sites up in .com and .net anyway, so the same problems we have with porn filters today will still exist. Only high-profile, legitimate operations like, say, Hustler.com or VividVideo.com will bother to spend the extra $60 per year.
Once the bluenoses set up their PC’s to filter out .xxx, they’ll be stunned to find that .com and .net smut is still getting through. Then they’ll scream for the government to write laws forcing porn onto .xxx, which will be meaningless, as the .com/.net pornographers will merely host their domains in other countries that lack these laws.
Still, the wording of these laws will become a political battle to determine just what exactly is dirty enough to require the mandatory .xxx — certainly we can agree that DoubleAmputeeMidgetFisting.com needs to go to .xxx, but what about an explicit website on sexual education or a academic paper on the historical evolution of sex toys? What about National Geographic photo essays on topless African tribeswomen, or the official website for the Vagina Monologues? Banishment to the .xxx red-light district will severly curtail the amount of traffic that site receives, so both unscrupulous pornographers and legitimate sex-oriented-but-not-porn sites will be fighting to keep their sites in .com/.net.
<sarcasm> Here’s a crazy idea: how about a law that requires parents to put the PC in the living room and forbids PC’s in the kids’ bedroom? Set it up in the living room with the monitor facing the same direction as the TV so mom and dad can monitor their child’s internet usage… you know, act like a parent.
Here’s another: force all PC manufacturers to include a card reader that only grants internet access after an adult has swiped their soon-to-be National ID Card through. Then we can also mandate that all web-surfing is to be monitored by a national agency which will break down your door if a stray boobie gets through. </sarcasm>
