The organization responsible for overseeing Internet domains has agreed to give sexually explicit content its own home on the Web. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it will create the new top-level domain, “.xxx.” This domain will be set aside for the “adult entertainment industry” and will be managed by a British Internet domain registry based in Florida.
Is this good for the Internet? Well, let’s think about it for a moment. The justification for .xxx is that it would give adult sites their own “district,” with clear boundaries that transcend geography. It will supposedly put adult content out of sight of those who don’t want to see it and make such content easier to find for those who do want it.
On the other hand, a lot of people feel online porn should be altogether illegal, but .xxx would seem to legitimize nearly any kind of online smut.
What’s interesting is that nearly everyone is critical of .xxx, no matter how they feel about sexually explicit websites. For example, watchdog groups Morality in Media http://www.moralityinmedia.org/ and the Family Research Council http://www.frc.org/ are not only upset about how .xxx legitimizes porn, they also say it will only increase the overall number of adult websites. Morality in Media President Robert Peters says .xxx will also allow adult websites to hide from government oversight.
But those with no objections to adult websites are giving ICANN dirty looks, too. CNET reporter Declan McCullagh says ICANN agreed to create .xxx because of political pressure, and this has made it easier for politicians to outlaw web porn. McCullagh says once .xxx is in use, prudish politicians can make it manditory for all porn sites. This will give the politicians the ability to judge what does and does not deserve an .xxx domain, which will then effectively enable them to shut down sites they don’t approve of.
So, who is in favor of .xxx? New .xxx domains will initially cost at least five times more than ordinary domains like .com, which already work fine for the multi-billion dollar porn industry. Online pornographers appearantly aren’t going to curry any favor by voluntarily using the new domain (using .xxx is not manditory). Anti-porn watchdogs oppose .xxx because they say it will invigorate online porn, while free speech advocates think it will eventually lead to the banning of online smut, which would be an abridgement of Constitutional rights. Even ICANN opposed the idea of .xxx as recently as 5 years ago, and critics say ICANN agreed to .xxx for purely political reasons.
They say where you stand depends on where you sit, but in this case it doesn’t seem to matter where you sit. .xxx will make piles of money for the registry that administers it, but it appears that’s the only group it will benefit.