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Will the new .XXX Web Domain make web filtering easier?

Posted by Geraldine Hunt on Mon, Aug 15th, 2011

 Just last week the first website using the new .XXX domain went live.

The plan :

To give readers some background , ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned names)  earlier this year ruled to create a new top-level domain for adult website or sites of a pornographic nature, using the “.xxx” suffix. The plan was that all pornographic sites could be consigned to one corner of the internet.

Why:

The thinking behind the new extension was that it will make it easier for companies, parents, and Web security professionals to block out pornographic sites by simply blocking on the extension.Many adult industry companies are expected to register for a .xxx domain name as an addition — but firms switching over to and actually using the new names en masse is doubtful, as analysts predict that many companies will simply create redirects to their primary “.com” sites.

So who actually benefits from this move?

Pornographic site operators have the option to use the new domain or not. Opponents of the new domain believe that as this is not an enforced domain requirement the benefits will be non existant. If just a sub section of pornography sites do move to the new domain the intended blocking of pornography sites via the .xxx domain will not be effective.

Pro .xxx domain

Advocates of the .xxx domain name see the move as a promising new way to filter pornography from the ’Net — a process which will still be significantly more successful than the current content-based filtering even if there is only a patchwork of opt-in sites.

Anti .xxx domain

Analysts at WebTitan are bemused at the naievity of the decision. While some adult entertainment industry website owners will register their sites using the new extension it is also most likely they will keep their current domain too so as not to limit their audience.

There have also been concerns raised concerns that cybersquatters attempting to register legitimate business names on the new domain causing much embarrassment and reputational damage to established companies.

What do you think?

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