'.XXX' Domain Name Under Consideration Again

CNS ^ | 01/19/2007 | Nathan Burchfiel

[lpeterboyd]

'.XXX' Domain Name Under Consideration Again
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
January 19, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - The organization in charge of approving Internet domains has reintroduced a controversial proposal to create a domain registry specifically for pornographic content.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in June 2005 approved the creation of the ".xxx" domain. But in May 2006, the organization voted against a contract with domain distributor ICM Registry, in part because of outcry from conservative family groups.

Since then, the ICANN and ICM Registry have worked to revise the terms of the original contract, adding policies aimed at prohibiting child pornography, requiring content labeling, prohibiting deceptive marketing and prohibiting unsolicited marketing.

ICANN began accepting public feedback on the revised contract on Jan. 5 and conservatives have relaunched a campaign to prevent its creation.

[politicket]

The best way to protect kids is to set up a firewall that ONLY allows access to specific parent-approved web sites.

This works much better than trying to narrow down millions of web sites to "just the good ones".

[BlueMondaySkipper]

Your kid mistypes "microsoft" and suddenly he is awash in porn.

Tell me about it.

We have a sporting goods store in our area called "Dick's Sporting Goods" (it's a chain). My wife wanted to order something they didn't have in the store and went to www.dicks.com. It was NOT the site she was looking for, and of course it was one of those that immediately launched a whole slew of other windows. LOL

It's been kind of a funny story to tell though. At least it wasn't the kids.

[AppyPappy]

My kids computer only allows them to use permissable websites. I have to give permission. It's a pain tho. And they can get on my computer which has no such limits.

All I want to do is be able to say "no porn" but the porn industry hates that idea. Imagine that.

[gcruse]

Why do they need XXX? Doesn't .org stand for orgasm?

[MediaMole]

The ISP's nameserver can easily block DNS lookup for all .XXX domains. It's simple, one entry and all the .XXX domains go away for that ISP's users. It doesn't stop everything -- or even that much, but it is something.

Sure, you can still get to the site through it's IP address, but finding the IP will take research.

Personally, I think the objection from the right is that .XXX domains legitimize online pornography. Once there is a porn domain, porn has been sanctioned as an official and accepted part of the net.

[Registered]

Oh, I know you love this topic...

[KoRn]

ping

[steve-b]

Why would the "conservative family groups" oppose this?

Because they live in a fantasy world and actually think they will somehow be able to make all the naughty pictures magically go away. It's like being against sending troops to Iraq because you want to just nuke 'em all.

[steve-b]

1. I have a porn site at .com and now I have one at .XXX. I've doubled my # of porn sites. This will happen at millions of sites.

Nonsense. Two different names can, and often do, refer to one and the same site.

[Wormwood]

Personally, I think the objection from the right is that .XXX domains legitimize online pornography.

Once again, I'd like to thank these idiots for helping to save me from myself.

[HAL9000]

Yeah, the dot-xxx domain is strictly a marketing gimmick for pornographers. It's virtually useless for filtering purposes, and it's a lousy solution from a network engineering standpoint.

The best solution would have been to reserve a range of IP addresses which would allow routers to efficiently block access (at least until the kids figured out how to configure their web browser to use a proxy server). An IP-based solution would also withstand the inevitable court challenges, in my opinion. But it's too late now.

[x]

This is to go with the new .zzz domain for especially boring sites.

[HAL9000]

I would favor the idea enthusiastically if there could be some way to require that all pornographers to register under the .XXX domain name. As you said, that would give people an easy way to block porn sites.

I'm certain that such a TLD-based requirement would be struck down as unconstitutional, based on the previous rulings. But a law requiring porno sites to be restricted to a numerical range of IP-addresses might stand a chance. It could be a sort of IPv6 "red light district" that could be blocked efficiently.

[doc30]

Because they live in a delusional world where they think they can make porn go away. By having the .xxx domain, it means there will be more porn and that must be opposed at all costs, even if it has no real effect on the big picture of internet porn as a whole.

[politicket]

You might consider password protecting your computer from your kids.

Yes, it is a pain - but a necessary one for our children's sake.

[AppyPappy]

Sounds a bit like blaming the victim to me

[ShadowAce]

[Doohickey]

Which is easier to block as a list on a server? IP numbers or multiple names assigned to a specific IP number?

The problem is that blocking a specific IP address would not be effective. And since porn sites are often hosted by legitimate web providers, blocking ranges of IP addresses is likely to block access to sites you actually want to visit.

Plus, the management overhead would be burdensome. Better to each proper behavior, IMO.