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from www.nydailynews.com – There’s a new red light district being created – just for the web.

On Friday, the the non-profit group in charge of internet addresses approved a movement to add the internet domain “.xxx” to a list of “generic top level domains” – similar to those those that end in .com, .net or .edu.

The move by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has been in the works since the board voted against it in 2007, was a point of contention for adult entertainment webbies who claimed that the new domain adds additional financial pressure to register new domain names.

Many other detractors – including the Obama administration – are concerned the new domain is opening up the door for censorship, especially in foreign countries. The United States has to date generally held the position of not intervening with the web, to avoid stifling growth and development.

“While some nations persist in proposing such measures as giving the International Telecommunication Union the authority to veto ICANN Board decisions, the United States is most assuredly opposed to establishing a governance structure for the Internet that would be managed and controlled by nation-states,” Lawrence Strickling, head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in a speech to ICANN on Monday.

But proponents of the domain insist it will not only help encourage better business practices, it will also use part of the registration fees to fight child pornography.

“At the moment, the consumer has no way of knowing who is operating to good standards or has viruses,” Stuart Lawley, ICM Registry’s chairman and chief executive, told the Washington Post.

While the move may encourage websites to go with the famous suffix, the change isn’t mandatory. Porn sites can still be found under other domains, but under the .xxx they will be monitored to block spam and viruses.