Sometimes you happen to be looking for information on shaving your cat or getting a bigger rooster – and that’s what you’re actually looking for. The ever growing and changing world of the Internet offers just about anything one could possibly desire.
Unfortunately, that can be a bad thing, with things like on-demand video of just about anything on YouTube, predators on MySpace and adult Web sites of all kinds being advertised constantly. My colleague, Mr. Davis, can attest to the latter of those. It seemed this past week that a tiny glimmer on the horizon may be appearing to help clean up the Internet. Well, sort of ‘hellip;
For the third time since 2000, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has rejected a proposal by ICM Registry, an industry group in support of the creation of a new .xxx domain for adult Web sites. The majority 9-5 vote against the proposal comes as no surprise to many people that have followed this story for the last seven years. This truly is a very heated issue that deserves greater attention than just that of tech news followers such as myself.
Starting from the pro side, supporters say that the .xxx suffix would be a voluntary way for responsible adult content companies to designate what their Web site is really offering. The proposed domain has received support from U.S. legislators on both sides of the aisle. Senator Joe Lieberman said to a federal commission that the .xxx domain was essential for making adult Web sites ‘abide by the same standard as the proprietor of an X-rated movie theater.’ With support such as this, it is very hard to see why anyone would be against implementing something that would inherently make it easier for us to identify, and if we choose, block out adult Web sites on our computers.
I personally agree with the supporters of this proposal, both as a future IT professional and as a citizen. It just makes sense that we would want to implement a system that would make it easier for the average user to identify an adult Web site before traveling to the site itself. If put into place, the .xxx domain would make it easier for parents to filter out Web sites that they don’t want their children visiting. It would be as simple as telling your parental control software or firewall to block all Web sites that end in .xxx. What could be simpler? The other proposed advantage is that in web searches that return results including adult sites, you would instantly know that a page included adult content based on the web address provided in the link.
On the side of the more vocal opponents of the .xxx domain, we hear complaints from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, conservative religious groups and even some Internet pornographers. When the .xxx proposal was reintroduced in 2005, the conservative Family Research Council made their opposition known by sending thousands of angry e-mails to the Department of Commerce, claiming that the .xxx domain would legitimize Internet pornography while ‘giving false hope to parents who want to protect their families from pornography.’
Addressing their first claim, I’m not sure where these people are living, but Internet pornographers, and pornographers in general, don’t need an international committee to give them their own domain to make them legitimate. They could care less. Regarding the latter complaint, I’ve already addressed that; it’s a simple solution from an IT point of view, so there’s really no argument there.
The ACLU has slightly different concerns on the topic that seem a little more serious than just moral judgments. They aren’t necessarily against the concept of the .xxx domain itself as much as they are against what may happen with governments around the world if it were approved. The ACLU and others have a genuine concern for the possibility of governments creating legislation allowing the .xxx domain to be used as a way to completely block out content that they don’t want their people to access.
The general consensus is that it will become a virtual red-light district in which its speakers will not be heard or reach their audience. I can say that I understand where the ACLU is coming from on this one, but we must also keep in mind that we can’t control the way other governments around the world work. What we should always realize in situations like this is that we are very fortunate to live in a country where free speech is allowed and can have organizations such as the ACLU defend our first amendment rights when the government attempts to encroach on them.
All in all, I hope that this little piece of Internet legislation has made you realize that there’s a reason why it’s called the World Wide Web; it belongs to everyone, not just us Americans. It is impossible to make everyone happy all the time, just always remember to do what’s best for the greater good, bro!