Posted on 06/13/2005 6:10:16 AM PDT by QwertyKPH
NEW YORK -- A red-light district tentatively cleared for construction on the Internet -- the ''.xxx'' domain -- is being billed by backers as giving the online porn industry an opportunity to clean up its act.
A distinct online sector for the salacious will reduce the chances of Internet users accidentally stumbling onto porn sites, they argue.
If only it were so simple.
Zoning in cyberspace has always been a daunting proposition, and participation in the porn domain will be voluntary.
Even if it's voluntary, supporters say, adult sites will have incentives to use ''.xxx.''
''If the carrot's big enough, you're going to get sites in there,'' said Parry Aftab, an Internet safety expert.
Nearly five years after rejecting a similar proposal, the Internet's key oversight body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, voted this month to proceed with ''.xxx.''
Industry suspicious of motives
ICANN staff will now craft a contract with ICM Registry Inc., the Jupiter, Fla., company that made the bid. If the board and ultimately the U.S. Commerce Department approve it, ''.xxx'' names could appear in use by the year's end.
The market unquestionably exists: Two in five Internet users visited an adult site in April, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Skeptics argue, however, that porn sites are likely to keep their existing ''.com'' storefronts, even as they set up shop in the new ''.xxx'' domain name. And that will reduce the effectiveness of software filters set up to simply block all ''.xxx'' names.
The ''.xxx'' domain ''legitimizes this group, and it gives false hope to parents,'' said Patrick Trueman, senior legal counsel at the Family Research Council and a former Justice Department official in charge of obscenity prosecutions.
The adult industry is also hardly behind ''.xxx.'' Many of its webmasters consider the domain ''the first step toward driving the adult Internet into a ghetto very much like zoning laws have driven adult stores into the outskirts,'' said Mark Kernes, senior editor at the Adult Video News. AP
Pity the fools who partake.
"If the carrot's big enough..."
The adult industry is also hardly behind ''.xxx.'' Many of its webmasters consider the domain ''the first step toward driving the adult Internet into a ghetto very much like zoning laws have driven adult stores into the outskirts,'' said Mark Kernes, senior editor at the Adult Video News. AP
** Poor babies... not everyone wants to be in view of your trash.
If only it would work that way. This does nothing but give them twice the potential. There are no further protections for minors in this either. It's a lame idea that's been around for years....but apparently makes people feel like they are actually doing something.
Those kids are going to have sex anyway, so we might as well give 'em birth control. Sound familiar?
Unfortunate(or apropos?) use of analogy alert.
Sure they're 'suspicious.' Purveyors of porn (not all, but far too many) are just as interested in targeting kids as they are adults. Get 'em hooked young, and you have a more secure income for a longer period of time.
Most internet providers have parental controls and filters, and it will be easier to 'sort out' the .xxx sites. Not foolproof, but it would help.
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