catholicsphere

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which does oversite for internet domain names, has been considering the domain extension, .xxx, for the past 5 years. Recently the officials in the federal government have asked that they not yet give it approval, citing the creation of an internet red-light district requires much consideration in order to “ensure the best interests of the Internet community as a whole are fully considered.” ( Read more: U.S. government urges delay in ‘.xxx’ domain )

Usage of the domain suffix would be voluntary, but it might be a good idea to make it mandatory, and to employ penalties for companies that don’t comply. This would allow for filtering software to have an easier time blocking pornographic sites (while it would also allow access points not using filtering software to easily identify adult sites). Though many conservative groups oppose the idea, saying it would “legitimize the pornography industry”, it would seem that the benefit outweighs the harm of roping these sites into a common area.

While there are many details to work out on regulation, forcing sites where the primary purpose is the delivery of pornography to use the .xxx domain could be a good thing. Although, and these are part of the details I mentioned, the internet is worldwide, and the standards and enforcement of these things may be difficult in the world, especially in countries that are more “open”.