No .XXX Domain For Now

ICANN, the international organization that governs Internet domains, has decided to table the issue of whether to create a new .xxx domain that would shuffle all those millions of porn sites over to the red light district.

Many in the adult-entertainment industry and religious groups alike had criticized the plan. The Canadian government also warned this week that it could put the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in the tricky business of content regulation, having to decide which sites are pornographic and which are not.

Porn sites opposed to ".xxx" were largely concerned that the domain name, while billed as voluntary, would eventually lead to governments mandating its use and pushing them into a so-called online ghetto.

Religious groups worried that ".xxx" would legitimize and expand the number of adult sites, which more than a third of U.S. Internet users visit each month, according to comScore Media Metrix. The Web site measurement firm said 4 percent of all Web traffic and 2 percent of all time spent Web surfing involved an adult site.

The issue really is just what exactly is a porn site and how you would define it for purposes of registration and management. You know it when you see it, but opinions vary around the world as to what is considered pornographic and what isn't.

On the one hand, putting a .xxx domain and requiring all such sites to use those domains instead of the current .com domain would make content watch software far more effective - you simply prohibit the entire domain instead of having to watch for individual sites. However, this also has the potential of interfering with the free speech rights of those entities running the sites.