WWW [The Daily Titan]- The renewed interest in the proposal
of a “.xxx” top-level domain (TLD), created specifically for sexually
explicit content, has once again sparked a controversial debate between
the adult entertainment industry, domain distributor ICM Registry and conservative groups.

The adult entertainment industry (through their professional organization
Free Speech Coalition) issued a press release last Tuesday petitioning for help in opposing the proposal set by Stuart Lawley,[pictured] head of ICM.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved
the TLD in June 2005, but in May 2006 voted against their contract with ICM, according to a CSNews.com article.

Earlier this year, revisions were made to the proposal between ICM and ICANN. This time around, stronger policing, labeling and prohibiting
against child pornography will be enforced. Despite these and other revisions, the debate still rages between advocates and opponents of the domain.

“I argued for that in my dissertation, that there should be a ‘.xxx’ domain,” said Genelle Belmas, professor of communications law.”The side that does not like pornography argues that if you give it its own domain,
you’re legitimizing the porn. And the pornographers don’t like it because they say it ‘ghettoizes’ the porn.”

According to a letter to the coalition’s supporters by executive director
of FSC, Diane Duke, what the adult industry refers to as “ghettoizing,”
is “making adult entertainment an easy target for anti-industry extremists
and government intrusion.”

Among other concerns addressed in the letter, the industry is worried about the cost of this possibility, since ICM plans to charge registrants $60 per URL per year, an added expense. Also, if the domain is approved, it might be made “mandatory and subject to trans-Internet filtering that could effectively eliminate much of the adult content currently available on the Web.”

What this means to the adult industry is an attack on their first amendment rights to free speech.

“[The pornography industry] is on the forefront of defense of first amendment encroachment,” Belmas said.

ICM only sees benefits to the new TLD, though. Not only will the adult industry’s revenue benefit by applying Best Business Practices, but most importantly, family online safety (protecting children) will substantially
increase.

In contrast to the “.xxx” TLD, a “.kids” domain has also been proposed.

So instead of grouping together all sexually explicit sites to the “.xxx” domain, there would be a kids domain where all sites would be filtered
towards the interest of children and young teenagers.

Dr. Spiros Courellis, assistant professor of computer science, identifies with this.

“To have a ‘.kids’ domain as a parent-I have four kids- I should be able to say that I can block everything else ’cause my 14-year-old doesn’t need to go shopping online [or be exposed to sex-related sites]. Direct it towards kids, there will be positive momentum.”

Under a constitutional legal theory called “zoning,” it is permitted to zone adult bookstores and adult content together, like in a red light district. It is also permitted to zone it away from schools and parks. Belmas says that “in a sense, having another domain like this is just a virtual zone instead of a real physical zone.”

“One of the things the government is always hyper about is protecting
children,” she said. “And if indeed they intend to protect children,
maybe making a kids-only domain, would be the way to do it.”

Instead of steering kids away from adult content, Belmas said, steer them towards content that’s appropriate for them. She believes that might be the best way to handle the situation.

Oscar Padilla, a 23-year-old Web programmer for Chino-based The Logo Network, is familiar with Internet filtering and online safety protection.

“By having a ‘.xxx’ that’s sponsored, there are regulations that must be abided by. The argument is saying that you’re going to have more filtering so that kids don’t have access to porn as easy.”

He also said that the “.xxx” TLD will require credit card authorization (which kids will not have) to prove the legality of a person’s age.

As far as Internet-related issues are concerned, the Internet will not be negatively affected by the proposed “.xxx” TLD.

“It’s not going to affect Internet traffic. The only thing it would affect
is search engines,” Padilla said.

“By having a switch to ‘.xxx,’ you know completely how you’re going to be filtering your searches. You [search] sex and everything’s forced to go to ‘.xxx.’ You’re going to have strictly adult content, as opposed to if you do ‘sex.com’ [you might find] medical or educational stuff] as well.”