A few month ago you may remember a significant push to allow ICANN to register .xxx domain names. That movement failed with the general consensus that allowing .xxx domain names would open up an internet red-light district. Well, now once again the bill is trying to make it’s way through Congress, and I am glad to hear it.
In my opinion, allowing .xxx domain names would be a good thing for the internet instead of a bad thing. By creating a domain name just for pornography, you are giving the porn industry a place to put their content. They will no longer have to register domain names such as whitehouse.com; they’ll have every word you can think of plus a .xxx at their disposable.
Now if the entire porn industry adopts this .xxx domain name, filters would have an easier job blocking pornogrpahy. Don’t want your children to see all the naughty things on the internet? Just add *.xxx to your web filter. No crazy word filters or manual blacklists like we do nowadays. One filter rule and you’re done.
Of course, there is always the argument that the porn industry won’t move to the .xxx domain name, and will keep their existing domain names with the additional .xxx domain names. If you think that, you may be right. However, as time passes and more people start using .xxx domain names, porn companies will no longer see it profitable to maintain their previous domain name and will move on. Even if the move never happens, it can’t hurt. Like I mentioned before, it only takes one rule to filter the .xxx domain names, so it’s not like there would be additional porn content on the internet.
In conclusion, no matter what we do, the porn industry is always going to have a presence on the internet. Why not just let the porn industry create a red-light district? This will help move them out of the “good” places on the internet, and will drag the people looking for some pleasure with them. If you care at all about keeping the junk off of the good parts of the internet, you’ll realize that having a red-light district is essential.
8 Comments
Yes but the .xxx domain has that red-light district feel to it. A .com gives it more legitimacy and allows people to visit such sites without having negative thoughts to it.
Having a .xxx domain has the same feeling as the sleezy porn shops with the xxx flashing you see on 42nd street in NYC. Going to an adult novelty store, where it has more of an “upscale” feeling to it, you don’t get that negative feelings, or feeling of shame for being there.
Clearly, you are on the internet, in the privacy of your own home, a web filter that filters based on domains isn’t a perfect solution as you mentioned earlier, but government shouldn’t regulate this. Not only is a large porn industry not in this country where congress has no powers, yes I know ICANN exists, but anybody can get .com for their own .com ventures and porn is still commercial last time I checked–there will be a line drawn.
Will sex education sites be banned? Will sites that discusses nudism be banned? To some, both topics should be considered porn, even though both are not. I think if .xxx is allowed, it will be pandoras box and will cause far too many problems that it will fix. Children are going to find porn anyways. And I think it’s perfectly healthy of at least teenagers to “find” this, and not have parents or government officals say its something to be ashamned of. Why do you think pre-teens find their fathers stack of Penthouses?
So I am unsure what else to say as this is a comment and not a well thought out rant, but I think to sum it all up, XXX is a terrible idea.
Jonathan, there is no logic to your line of reasoning. Sites dealing with sexual education or nudism, especially in art, are already banned by school districts and business filters by keyword filters. Adding a .xxx domain would not have an effect in these environments. Those sites would be blocked, plus the current banned sites. Therefore, there is no negative effect in the business world.
In the privacy of your home, if that even exists, a .xxx domain still has no negative impact. As Ron stated, porn sites will continue to use their old domain until traffic has declined, which will probably never happen. Government regulation will have no effect on porn sites because of the massive revenue drawn in from these sites. (In a sense, the .xxx domain would be a psuedo-tobacco company.) Now we have a positive for the .xxx domain, increased government revenue. Not the mention how much more easier it will be to find pornography, although it is quite easy now.
A .xxx domain could have no negative effects on any aspect of the internet. It will either be neutral, and the internet world will go blind to its presence, or provide more revenue for the government and businesses, because of how much easier it will be to subscribe to a porn site. Dealing with a negative connotation, a .xxx domain would symbolize more legality, instead of the malware-filled .com sites. Would users trust a legalized porn site or some shady .com that offers a “quick fix?”
I am all about deregulation. Especially regulations by the US Government when the internet is such an international venue. XXX is a poor idea, won’t be implemented properly, will be costlier which then people will just resort to using COM.
To me, what makes filtering a bad idea is if anything legitamit gets blocked, it proved to be a failure. If one is researching breast cancer, then damn you can’t because it’s blocked. Granted breast cancer research sites won’t get XXX, but with the government having control, who knows whats in store…
The .xxx domain is useless. Porn site operators will just register both .com/.net and .xxx. I agree with Jonathan that the .xxx domain will not be implemented properly. It is just another attempt to censor the internet.
I think that is irrelevant to the debate. You only use the domain once to access the site (or never if you use Google). In the end it will be the design of the site that would create that feel.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t the addition of the .xxx domain extension been originally supported by porn companies. I have always thought that the porn industry wanted .xxx domain names because they want more domain names. I didn’t think the whole .xxx idea was proposed to aid in filtering; that has just been a side-effect of it.
Tony and Ron are right anyone that doesn’t like the idea are well stupid. why!? Because we are thinking about the school and the school sites which i hate going to get a picture of a piece of wood and going there and seeing thats blocked. If you start thinking outside the box and going to ur own personal computers then why the hell would u want a filter!? afraid that ur mom will get u doing something that u are not supposed to do in front of her!?
People grow up !!!!
The .xxx idea is kool and it should be given a chance so…stop complaining!
You won’t get 100% voluntary switching to .xxx domains in the porn industry. Not even close. And even if you try to force them, they’ll find ways around it. It’s not a horrible idea, but it’s not going to make the internet safe for children either.
Switching or not, the .xxx domain would be used to help organize the sites. Sure, porn sites will maintain their .com sites, and they will remain to be blocked. Safety will not be affected either way.