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ICANN Likely Finally To Approve .xxx For Porn Sites

Posted by timothy on from the type-one-and-type-two-errors dept.

shmG writes with this from the International Business Times: "The company that oversees Web addresses is expected to give the go-ahead on Friday for the creation of a .xxx suffix for websites with pornographic content, company officials indicated on Thursday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the Internet on behalf of the US government, has in the past resisted creating a .xxx generic domain name system akin to those for .com and .net."

7 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. because .xxx is nothing like .sex by oneiros27 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Doesn't anyone bother to read the RFCs? (probably not, they're too interested in trying to sell domains to make money)

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    1. Re:because .xxx is nothing like .sex by moderatorrater · · Score: 5, Interesting

      For a while new porn sites will be registered at both .com and .xxx, and the existing sites will still probably be primarily .com (although they'll register .xxx for brand purity). As a filter it will be meaningless, and as a tool for censorship it won't work. Legitimate porn sites tend to not try to get around filtering right now anyway, so the free speech concerns seem overblown.

      However, it does offer value to both porn sites and internet users. First, it's a namespace that you always know is porn, so if you're looking for porn this can be a useful tool. Filtering these sites is as easy as it can get, and as mentioned before most porn sites don't try to get around filters anyway. Porn sites now have a way of identifying themselves more fully for customers and they don't have to compete for .com names.

      Most importantly in my mind, this could be the easiest way to get people weaned off of .com as the only tld. .gov is useful for a small subset of sites, .org can be useful for some sites (although they almost all try to get the .com as well), and .co.uk is the .com of Britain. If they introduce .xxx and it takes off, it'll be a big step forward in making more domain names viable, and I consider that to absolutely be a good thing.

    2. Re:because .xxx is nothing like .sex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What did children do to be locked up in a prison of mind? Or rather, do you want to teach them that they should expect such?

      Because, sorry, porn does not even interest kids before puberty (really, they simply don't care - no threat of lifelong damage or anything, its just that). And after puberty I think you should kind of have to realize it is a human urge that cannot be suppressed entirely without negative effects. Even more iportantly that at the time of puberty they are definitely getting some of the last opportunities on the path to maturity of mind.
      If you prevent them from learning about what's REALLY out there in the world (wikipedia, news, violence, porn and prostitution, inequality and unfairness...) and even to feel hurt by it, they may never in their life manage to deal with it.

  2. Obvious... by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ICANN HAZ PORN?

  3. Re:So... by snowraver1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If google.xxx is what I think it would be, it could perhaps be the best website on the Internet.

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  4. New TLDs like printing money by peterofoz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems to me that creating a new TLD is like printing money. Anyone with a brand to protect will be coerced into buying up their {brand}.{TLD} to park it and prevent abuse. Consider for example: www.disney.xxx or www.ford.xxx Creating this won't eliminate porn on the other TLDs and centralized censorship is generally a bad idea.

  5. Re:I've got dibs by psychicsword · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too bad you will never get any