Bring on Those XXX Internet Domains

TheRant.us ^ | July 8, 2005 | Nathan Tabor

[neverhome]

It may surprise some people, but I agree with Parsons on this one. And I would go even further. I am a Conservative who believes that we should both welcome and fight FOR the .XXX domain designations.

What? Yes, you heard me right. Now hear me out.

I believe we should use the tactics of the Liberals – who always love to tax and regulate everything – and make ALL porn sites drop their current .COM domains and go to the .XXX url exclusively.

[neverhome]

If this is done then might we also run the risk of having overly zealous legislators and opportunistic activists scrambling to create a situation in which just about every kind of website might be subject to similar action? This could end up forcing non-specialized sites (mine, for example) to purchase additional domains just to maintain a diversity of content.

[Andy from Beaverton]

I always believed in changing the WWW to XXX.

[kharaku]

I'm all for that even really. It'd be so much easier to find sites. .news for democrat drivel. .rl for religious. .tr for terrorism.

[Vigilanteman]

Smut magazines are banned to the back of store counters now. Strip clubs are regulated and closely monitored for compliance. So why not regulate porn websites also?

Makes perfect sense to me. Anyone know why Americans, as inventors of the internet, turned the administration over to ICANN, an international clique clearly dominated by Euroweenies?

[Smedley]

The only thing I might ask is some sort of rating system. There are some "R" rated sites and sites that have racy, but not pornographic material on one side.

... and then there's the Playboy-type websites ...

... and then there's the hard-core sites ...

... and then there's the BDSM, animal sex hyper-perversion sites.

I just think that they shouldn't all be lumped together

[kanecorp]

It'd obviously become a lot easier to block kids from getting to pornographic websites, having a filter that blocks alll *.XXX sites is a lot more accurate than having the filter try and block the *.COM ones.

[layman]

make ALL porn sites drop their current .COM domains and go to the .XXX url exclusively.

I agree that this would be a good thing. It is no different from reputable book stores and movie rental outlets refusing to handle pornographic materials.

[lOKKI]

Using a ".PORN" or ".XXX" instead of a ".COM" would be of great value to parents. It would make filtering out porno much easier for those who want to avoid it, without preventing those who want to access it from doing so.

The argument that this is "ghetto-izing" the net, is simply a reducto-ad-absurdum argument. We already have "zoning" on the net in the form of ".gov", and ".org" and that hasn't ruined the world.;

The porno industry doesn't want this because it'll reduce their 'wander-by' trade. There will be lots of mama's who will tell dad to set that filter to block ".porn" sites to protect .Jr and dad's not going to tell her no, even if it means he won't be able to stumble into "Sexy Cheerleaders" site by accident every Saturday anymore.

[ConservativeMan55]

Senator Coburn Holds Hearing Exposing Vaste Waste.

[Prime Choice]

If there is to be any regulation of the 'net, it oughta start with evicting every damned domain squatter who thinks that snagging a useful domain for $6 should entitle them to extort all sorts of money from someone who can actually use it.

Naturally, this step will never be taken as it would disadvantage loads of jackwits.

[Willie Green]

I always believed in changing the WWW to XXX.

I thought that WWF wrestling already did that.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

You'd still have the problem of defining smut that should be relegated to XXX, just like movies.

As an example, the PG rating for movies now means just about anything.

[Casaubon]

yup

i have said this when mosaic was the browser of choice.

it should have been done at the get go....now the whole billion dollar porn/spam/spyware industries have the lawyers and cash to fight such a change.

[Turbopilot]

Interesting concept, but the author apparently fails to realize that the U.S. does not, in fact, "own" the Internet.

[Jabba the Nutt]

I just think that they shouldn't all be lumped together

OK, we've have x, xx and xxx domains. ;^)

[sharktrager]

I like the idea. The only downside I see is that there are so many porn sites out there already it's not likely to impact people stumbling across porn much.

Scared Bunny Blog
Not for the timid

[neverhome]

make ALL porn sites drop their current .COM domains and go to the .XXX url exclusively.

I agree that this would be a good thing. It is no different from reputable book stores and movie rental outlets refusing to handle pornographic materials.

I must respectfully disagree. If Waldenbooks makes a decision to not include porn, that's a good thing. Forcing them to do it by law is another matter. And one must consider how sites with varied content could end up having to purchase multiple domains if such a measure ended up being applied beyond the porn industry. Admittedly that's a bit of a stretch, but in today's political climate it's possible.

Nathan has a good idea, but I'd urge extreme caution.

[layman]

Forcing them to do it by law is another matter

I don't disagree with this. My thought was that the only 'forcing' would be the requirement that XXX sites use the .XXX url. I do not have the expertise to visualize how users or providers could choose to include or exclude the .XXX url. Possibly a search engine which excludes .XXX?

[jjmcgo]

Which is better? Beautiful girls in cowboy hats or beautiful girls in baseball caps?
Probably the cowboy hat if she also has a beaded belt with her name beaded into it.

[HAL9000]

It'd obviously become a lot easier to block kids from getting to pornographic websites, having a filter that blocks alll *.XXX sites is a lot more accurate than having the filter try and block the *.COM ones.

Sorry, that is not correct. Bypassing a top-level domain filter is simply a matter of using an IP address in the URL. The kids will figure that out in no time.

The most effective, constitutional way to zone porn sites is to require them to be hosted within a numeric range of IP addresses - then access can be blocked efficiently with a common router. This could have been planned during the migration to IPv6, but it may be too late to do that now.