The .xxx domain debate
ICANN approved the .xxx top-level domain extension in June expecting that webmasters could be able to register domains in the “red-light” district of the internet by the end of 2005, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. The Bush administration, among other political groups, has voiced its concern over the use of the new domain. Also, for very different reasons, the ACLU is questioning the implementation of the .xxx domain because some non-pornographic sites with sexual content could be forced to move to the new domain - this is the first time I can remember seeing the Bush administration and the ACLU on the same side of the fence notwithstanding their different perspectives on the issue.
Personally I think the .xxx TLD is a good idea. I work on the internet for a living and have had several experiences where I came across content I didn’t want to see - fortunately we have a very good filter so this isn’t usually an issue, but I’m sure there are a lot of houses in the US that don’t have intelligent filtering and so children are finding this stuff too easily. By having a .xxx extension on a site, it will be very easy to block all of the domains with the extension and hence make surfing the internet a little safer.
I understand that all webmasters are not immediately going to embrace the idea and move their porn sites to .xxx domains - in other words, this is not going to be an overnight fix to filtering porn - but I think it is a good first step to solving the problem. If it is going to cause even a small percentage of smut to be easier to identify (and hence not to visit), I think it’s worth it. If the Bush administration thinks that it’s going to be too easy for people to find porn because of the consistent use of the .xxx domain, they obviously haven’t spent any time on Google.
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