.xxx marks the spot

NEW YORK Jan 6, 2007 (AP)— The Internet's key oversight agency has revived a proposal it earlier rejected to create an online red-light district, after adding stronger provisions to prohibit child pornography and require labeling of Web sites with sexually explicit materials.

The use of the proposed ".xxx" domain name would remain voluntary, but any porn sites that choose to use it instead of the more popular ".com" would be subject to the new terms issued by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

According to another piece on the subject:

Opponents, such as Focus on the Family, say the .xxx domain would legitimatize the industry and expand the amount of pornography on the Internet. "We don't support an effort that would further legitimize an industry that puts out material that we believe is illegal and harmful," said Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality for Focus on the Family. "It has the unintended effect of proliferating pornography on the Internet."

They've got to be kidding. Like the .xxx domain will help pornography proliferate in a way it doesn't already? And if sites are doing something illegal (I assume he's implying use of underage models and actors) then enforce the law.

Nonetheless, I think this is a bad idea. The company that will be registrar for .xxx domains plans to act like a Better Business Bureau, somehow vetting the companies that use it for best practices:

"It would give a space for responsible members of the adult- entertainment community," said Stuart Lawley, chief executive of ICM Registry. "The whole point of this was to encourage a migration to .xxx."

As if porn sites would give up their .com domains rather than just adding .xxx ones.

However, some members of the adult-entertainment industry who make up the Free Speech Coalition are firmly against the domain.

The group proposes the creation of a .kids domain to direct families to child-friendly websites, rather than establishing a .xxx domain to be filtered out.

That sounds like a much better idea. If the idea is to help parents protect children from porn, filtering out everything but this topo-level domain would work. But this plan still requires someone to be the arbiter of who can have those domains and itself raises free speech issues.

How about this: Just continue to let anyone who wants one have any domain they want, do anything legal with it, and let parents pay attention to what their kids are doing.