XXX-Pornography will soon have its own special place on the Internet.

[ponto]

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the nonprofit body that oversees Internet addresses - has approved a proposal to create net domains ending in .xxx. Sites containing sexually explicit material will be encouraged to move to the new "red light district", the .xxx domain.

The .xxx decision reverses previous rulings to block the new domain out of fears that it would be too controversial. In November 2000, ICANN refused an earlier proposal by the ICM Registry for the .xxx domain.

Many politicians criticized the earlier decisions, including Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. He wanted to know why ICANN didn't approve the proposal "as a means of protecting our kids from the awful, awful filth, which is sometimes widespread on the Internet." Others in congress complained that the approval of the .xxx domain was a necessary step to regulate adult content.

There is no current mechanism in place that would force adult content off current domains like .com, .net, .org, etc. ICANN's policy has generally been free-speech friendly.

[Jeremy]

Sites containing sexually explicit material will be encouraged to move to the new "red light district", the .xxx domain.

There is no current mechanism in place that would force adult content off current domains like .com, .net, .org, etc.

:D:D:D (Read: hysterical laughter)

Whether or not Porn web sites should be regulated by the government is a separate point, asking someone to please move their content to a .xxx domain versus their multi-million dollar .com domain, ex. porn.com is absurd.

It would be like asking Ford (the car company) to please change their business name because Ford (the actor) doesn't want to be associated with cars.

That being said, I have pointed out before that the US government is pretty powerless in a global Internet. Say you made it illegal in the US to have porn content on a .com domain. That means absolutely nothing if you are based in China.

Stories like this scare the **** out of me. Not because I care about this particular issue, but rather because it shows me yet again that the people in government have absolutely no concept of the web or a global world. As a result, only people in America suffer.

It's a lot like the stem cell research issue. Whether or not you agree with stem cell research, President Bush cannot ban research globally. The result is not an abolishment of stem cell research. All it means is that other countries are researching anyway and developing new drugs and cures (Read: money) instead of this country. We end up stuck in the dark ages while other countries enjoy progress, and American dollars.