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"It's a big day for the porn industry.
On Friday, ICANN, the not-for-profit corporation that coordinates the internet's naming system, voted to allow the application of the controversial ".xxx" top-level domain name for sites that display adult content.
The domain, which would need further approval before going live on the internet, would be applied to adult entertainment sites just as ".com" is now.
The .xxx internet suffix, which was first proposed six years ago by ICM Registry, a group that sells domain names, "will provide a place online for adult entertainment providers and their service providers who want to be part of our voluntary self regulatory community," according to that company's news release.
Adopting .xxx will be optional. However, some tech blogs speculate a push to make the domain mandatory for adult-only sites.
ICM Registry has already taken 110,000 pre-reservations for the domain, which could be available in early 2011, if not sooner, its news release states.
While the company says labeling adult content online "will allow for simple and effective filtering for those who wish to do so," not everyone is pleased with ICANN's decision to approve the domain.
Some people involved in the industry are hesitant to accept the domain, "fearing it will lead to censorship, as it would be very easy to block the entire domain instead of individual sites," Rick Johnson of Portfolio.com wrote Thursday.
On the other hand, "some religious groups are against the creation of the domain, as it would lend more legitimacy to the adult entertainment industry," he wrote."
-- End CNN
Personally, I've long advocated the creation of ".xxx" since the idea was first proposed. The "legitimacy" issues are bunk as far as I'm concerned. These people desire to see all types of porn outright banned but I highly doubt that's going to happen.
I also do not want to see censorship on a governmental or institutional level. But I also highly support the idea to require that porn companies be limited to the usage of .xxx on the internet (except for perhaps the websites for corporate and the like that do not use explicit imagery).
What this .xxx domain would do is allow individual users to block every website using the .xxx domain. This make web filtering simple. If any pornographic site tries to use anything beyond .xxx they'd be prosecuted.
And that scenario is what the porn industry does not want to see happen. They thrive on capturing the next generation of youth with their pop-ups, viruses, etc. With web filtering made easy much of their potential profit would disappear.
But we'll see what happens the next couple years. My cynical side says that the porn industry will just use this new top-level domain as a way to expand their number of sites. Federal and state regulations aleady exist in regards to porn but very few of them are enforced, except for the obvious like child pornography. I have a hard time seeing such a drastic change to the whole internet being enforced.
We'll see...
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