.xxx? ICANN’t
The Internet’s regulatory body Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, rejected a controversial plan for a new “.xxx” domain last week by a vote of 9 to 5. The decision proved to be as controversial as the proposal, which was actually first introduced by ICANN last June.
The adult entertainment industry opposes the domain because they feel it would be a “step toward banning online sexual content.�? According to an AFP article, “Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, wrote in comments to ICANN that the plan is ‘an inherently dangerous idea with no real purpose. Only if it becomes a tool of censorship will it achieve its goal of preventing access to adult content by minors, and if it falls short of that goal, what reason for it was there for it in the first place?’�? Conservative groups oppose it, according to Ecommerce Times, on the grounds it would legitimize pornography. So, Larry Flynt and the conservatives agree that the domain should not exist, they just don’t agree why it shouldn’t exist.
But there is yet another side, which is — the international community’s concern that the US has too much influence over the Internet. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the decision “attracted the ire of other countries who saw it as evidence of U.S. influence over the Internet. They argued that the U.S. government, beholden to conservative groups, was politicizing decisions normally determined by technical criteria.�? Additionally the article stated that “the Icann vote likely will be seen by critics as evidence of the influence commerce has over the Internet.�? So ICANN was damned if it did, and damned if it didn’t.
Child protection advocates feel that a new .xxx domain will protect children from online pornography by creating an identifiable area of cyberspace. From my perspective, this is hard to dispute (at least in theory). Adult entertainment is marked in some way in all other media. Movies and DVDs get X (and XXX) ratings. Television shows are rated these days. Pornographic magazines are displayed separately from other genres, with bad parts blocked. Even CDs display warning labels these days. Why should the adult entertainment industry continue to be able to trick people into going to their sites or innocently lure young people to them with unidentifiable names, or without an identifiable domain?
