I really don’t hate to say I told you so…
NEW YORK – Acknowledging “unprecedented” opposition, the U.S. government has asked the Internet’s key oversight agency to delay approval of a new “.xxx” domain name designed as a virtual red-light district.
The [Commerce] department received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails expressing concerns about the impact of pornography on families and children and objecting to setting aside a domain suffix for it, he said.
“The volume of correspondence opposed to creation of a .xxx TLD (domain name) is unprecedented,” Gallagher wrote to Vinton Cerf, ICANN’s chairman.
Two in five Internet users visited an adult site in April, according to tracking by comScore Media Metrix. The company said 4 percent of all Web traffic and 2 percent of all surfing time involved an adult site.
Skeptics note that porn sites are likely to keep their existing “.com” storefronts, even as they set up shop in the new “.xxx” domain name, reducing the effectiveness of any software filters set up to simply block all “.xxx” names.
Conservative groups such as the Family Research Council also expressed worries that creating a “.xxx” suffix would also legitimize pornographers.
Tee hee! The heathens hate it because it won’t work and will just make porn surfing harder (must resist further pun urges!), the civil liberties people don’t like it because it sets up government as the arbiter of smut, and the bluenoses don’t like it because it “legitimizes” porn.
I love the internet!
