The top-level domain (TLD) .xxx, intended for sexually explicit material, is set to go live this summer after it got the green light from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Friday.
The TLD’s activation drew the support of 16 of ICANN’s board members at the public meeting in San Francisco, which followed a week-long conference on the contentious issue.
ICANN defended its decision to approve .xxx, which some argue is destined to become “the red light district of the Internet”.
Conservative governments have criticised the proposed TLD, and it has also divided those in the sexually explicit media industry, with some fearing the domain will make it easier for sites to be censored.
None of the governments participating in ICANN’s policy process supported the plan, but it has proceeded without active opposition from Obama’s administration. The Bush administration had held back .xxx’s approval.
The TLD has been in the wings since 2003 and more than 230,000 .xxx domains have been sold in advance.
Under an agreement between ICANN and ICM Registry, the US-based organisation that will sell .xxx addresses, ICM will use a portion of the fees collected to fund efforts designed to keep children away from online pornography.
ICM chief executive Stuart Lawley said the .xxx move would help keep porn out of the hands of those who should not have it.
“For the first time, there will be a clearly defined web address for adult entertainment, further out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or computer viruses,” he said in a statement.
Some had hoped that the San Francisco conference would push ahead with a broader movement towards generic TLDs for other sectors, but that plan continues to face obstacles, including the opposition of some governments.
The ICANN board set an official target of 20 June for resolving the remaining issues around generic TLDs.
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The introduction of "xxx" will have no effect on Adult Dotcom websites: they will remain unchanged. There is a possibility that some Adult content may get duplicated at "xxx", so perhaps people will get to see the same content twice.
All ICANN has done is to re-affirm that Alternative DNS is the way forward whilst encouraging more people to vote with their feet looking for new ways to use the World Wide Web . As a direct result, Internet users now can create an unlimited range of (previously unavailable) personalised Non-ICANN domains and TLDs, completely free.
Sites such as Dashworlds.com already provide brand new Dashcom (not Dotcom) domain names. Dashcoms are addresses in format "business-com", "paris-fashion", "social-network" and of course any "xxx" extension you might desire. Totally outside the realm and control of ICANN, Internet users can create any domain in any language, instantly and at no cost.
With users and members in over 90 countries worldwide, resolution is via an APP; although new ISP Links are available to make this unnecessary (ISP Links that are also available to ICANN).
Having just one Internet floating in infinite cyberspace is like saying you can go anywhere in the USA as long as you only use route 66. So now, just as in the USA (and everywhere else in the world) the Internet has more than one option.