just got their mail
XXX.com Redux
The Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an entity tasked with the role of "traffic cop" on the Internet, helping to determine how content on the web gets classified. In recent years, ICANN has been considering whether to create a new Web domain for pornography, where porn sites would be assigned the ending .xxx instead of .com or some other designation. Today's Wall Street Journal reports that the ICANN board could vote as soon as today on the proposal to create this new "adult neighborhood" on the web. Advocates of the idea say it will make it easier for filtering software to block porn web sites. At least one advocate, the Journal reports, has other goals in mind as well: Web entrepreneur Stuart Lawley "hopes to make a pile of money by collecting fees for registering dot-xxx sites."
ICANN should continue to resist this bad idea, and the U.S. Commerce Department, which has veto power, should overrule ICANN if it takes this step. As our Charmaine Yoest told the Journal, "The porn industry is constantly preying on the eyes of our children. This would only double porn holdings on the internet."
The Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an entity tasked with the role of "traffic cop" on the Internet, helping to determine how content on the web gets classified. In recent years, ICANN has been considering whether to create a new Web domain for pornography, where porn sites would be assigned the ending .xxx instead of .com or some other designation. Today's Wall Street Journal reports that the ICANN board could vote as soon as today on the proposal to create this new "adult neighborhood" on the web. Advocates of the idea say it will make it easier for filtering software to block porn web sites. At least one advocate, the Journal reports, has other goals in mind as well: Web entrepreneur Stuart Lawley "hopes to make a pile of money by collecting fees for registering dot-xxx sites."
ICANN should continue to resist this bad idea, and the U.S. Commerce Department, which has veto power, should overrule ICANN if it takes this step. As our Charmaine Yoest told the Journal, "The porn industry is constantly preying on the eyes of our children. This would only double porn holdings on the internet."
Comment