.xxx

Numerous media outlets reported on May 11, 2006, that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Names ("ICANN," as in "ICANN screw you however I want"), decided against the creation of a top-level domain ("TLD") of .xxx. The obvious rationale behind a .xxx TLD is that it would make it extraordinarily easy to filter so-called "adult sites." Many porn sites presently use the .com TLD. Some civil libertarian types fear governments might try to force porn sites into this domain hierarchy (this would certainly be a case of the state overreaching its power, but is still preferable to outright censorship). Moreover, the .xxx domain offers the adult industry, schools, libraries, and parents a chance to actually prevent the viewing of so-called objectionable material by minors.

Although no specific reason for the rejection was given, it's unlikely that reactionary politics in the U.S. didn't play something of a role. The rejection of .xxx is just another of a slew of examples of U.S. reactionaries ("conservatives") choosing to keep the status quo over actually protecting the interests of their constituents, many of whom probably don't want their children viewing pornography even as they view it themselves. Another rather hilarious example is when they try to prevent education about birth control, which only encourages more unsafe sex and more abortions.

There is a fear that .xxx would legitimize an industry that arguably has already been legitimized anyway by virtue of the billions of dollars spent on consumption of pornography. To go off on something of a tangent, it might be interesting to consider what type of person is actually entertained by pornography: it's likely the type of person who probably doesn't have a steady supply of healthy sex. It's a safe bet that the type of person likely to view it, even if unhappily married, is the type of bored guy sitting in a hotel room on a business trip with nothing to do, or the person who lives in a lonely suburban subdivision with nothing to do in the evening. Naturally, such people are very likely to vote for reactionaries, even if they don't want anyone interfering with their private viewing conduct.

In the end, one can only marvel at the fact that the self-appointed defenders of private conduct actually went out of their way to exacerbate a problem. The prospect of the .xxx TLD provides one of the few incentives imaginable to the adult entertainment industry to actually keep their unsavory content out of the hands of minors without even imposing a burden on their resources. The problem for moralists, of course, is that it doesn't do anything to limit the consumption of the material by adults who are already viewing it anyway. The .xxx TLD could be easily filtered. All that a firewall or filtering product need do is block the entire .xxx TLD from being accessible to a computer. It should be a no-brainer.