mind serif;”>If you were to pull search engine keyword request trends, ampoule you would find that in 2006, and in a worldwide poll, Ireland ranked second for the keyword “porn”. Pornography in time would go a little something like this: every second, $3,075.64 is spent on pornography, 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography and 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines. Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States.
Of course, these are all just statistics if you’re a legal and consenting adult, free to make your own decisions based on rational decisions and desires. However, consider the idea that a child or young adolescent types these popular keywords into Google: “porn” “xxx” “sex”. In the highly sexualised society that has developed given the ease with which we can obtain information, it is not surprising that measures need to be taken in order to prevent such material falling into more vulnerable hands. 12% of sites on the internet are pornographic; that’s 24,644,172 chances of the wrong material being exposed to the wrong people.
.xxx is what is called a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) proposed as a voluntary option to replace the .com of pornography sites, sponsored by the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). It was inspired by the former Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) “X” rating, used in grading pornographic movies as “XXX.” The IFFOR Charter says that “the .xxx TLD is intended to primarily serve the needs of the global responsible online adult-entertainment community.”
It defines the online adult-entertainment community as “those individuals, businesses, and entities that provide sexually-oriented information, services, or products intended for consenting adults.” They go on to say that the terms “adult entertainment” and “sexually-oriented” are “intended to be understood broadly for a global medium, and are not to be construed as legal or regulatory categories.” When referring to the community, they refer generally to websites that “convey sexually-oriented information and for which a system of self-identification would be beneficial.”
Sites can register for a .xxx TLD with a 50 day Sunrise period, ending on October 28, giving businesses inside and out of the adult industry an exclusive chance to register for the TLD, or to exclude their names from it. The Sunrise A period concerns registration from the adult community, while the Sunrise B period, running at the same time, concerns companies outside the adult industry. After the close of Sunrise period, a “land rush” period will commence on November 8 and will run for 17 days, where businesses from the adult entertainment industry will have premium access to remaining web addresses, following which there will be general availability.
A generic top-level domain (gTLD) for sexually explicit material was proposed as a way for dealing with conflict between those who wish to provide and access such material through the internet, and those who wish to prevent access to it, either by children and adolescents, or by employees at the workplace. Arguments for the idea propose that it’ll be easier for parents and employers to block the entire TLD, rather than using more complex and error-prone content-based filtering, without imposing any restrictions on those who wish to access it. What editors of explicit content sites are afraid of is that the use of a single gTLD like .xxx will make it easier for search engines to block all of their content.
Critics of the idea argue that because the TLF is voluntary, sexually explicit material will still be commonplace in other domains, making it essentially ineffective at restricting access and simply creating a new rush as registrants of .com domains hosting explicit material attempt to duplicate their registrations in the .xxx domain, competing with operators who hope to register desirable names unavailable in other TLDs. There is also concern that the existence of .xxx will lead to legislation making its use mandatory for sexually explicit material, leading to legal conflicts over the definition of “sexually explicit”, free speech rights, and jurisdiction.
Lisa Gorry
