Agency set to approve .xxx suffix for porn
Source: Agencies |
June 27, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IT may soon be easier to block Internet porn. The agency that controls domain names has said it will consider adding .xxx to the list of suffixes people and companies can pick when establishing their identities online.
The California-based nonprofit agency, ICANN, effectively paved the way for a digital red light district to take its place alongside suffixes such as .com and .org, finally ending a decade-long battle over what some consider formal acknowledgment of pornography's prominent place on the Internet.
While the move may help parents stop children from seeing some sites, it wouldn't force porn peddlers to use the new .xxx address ¨? and skeptics argue that few adult-only sites will give up their existing .com addresses.
Still, it's seen as a symbolic step in the opening up of Internet domain names and suffixes, coming on the same day the agency said it would start accepting Chinese script for domain names.
The decision is a victory for US company ICM Registry LLC, which has applied repeatedly to be able to register and manage the .xxx suffix. The Internet names agency has rejected its application three times since 2000, partly under pressure from Christian groups and governments unhappy with the spread of online porn, said ICM's Chief Executive Stuart Lawley.
He pitches the suffix, in part, as protection for parents, arguing it will make it easy for Web blocking software to filter out ".xxx" sites, marking them clearly as porn.
"People who want to find it know where it is, and people who don't see it or want to keep it away from their kids can use mechanisms to do so," he said.
The California-based nonprofit agency, ICANN, effectively paved the way for a digital red light district to take its place alongside suffixes such as .com and .org, finally ending a decade-long battle over what some consider formal acknowledgment of pornography's prominent place on the Internet.
While the move may help parents stop children from seeing some sites, it wouldn't force porn peddlers to use the new .xxx address ¨? and skeptics argue that few adult-only sites will give up their existing .com addresses.
Still, it's seen as a symbolic step in the opening up of Internet domain names and suffixes, coming on the same day the agency said it would start accepting Chinese script for domain names.
The decision is a victory for US company ICM Registry LLC, which has applied repeatedly to be able to register and manage the .xxx suffix. The Internet names agency has rejected its application three times since 2000, partly under pressure from Christian groups and governments unhappy with the spread of online porn, said ICM's Chief Executive Stuart Lawley.
He pitches the suffix, in part, as protection for parents, arguing it will make it easy for Web blocking software to filter out ".xxx" sites, marking them clearly as porn.
"People who want to find it know where it is, and people who don't see it or want to keep it away from their kids can use mechanisms to do so," he said.
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