The Internet's New 'Red Light District'

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently approved the creation of a new "neighborhood" on the Web.  And it's one you'll want to keep your kids out of.

ICANN is the governing body for the assignment of Internet domains. On June 25, ICANN's board approved the creation of a new "top-level domain" for the Internet designated specifically for pornographic content. The goal is to create an area on the Internet that can easily be blocked off from access by security software or web filtering software, preventing it from being reached accidentally or otherwise by people who shouldn't see it (like children, or people at work).

Top-level domains are what comes after the "." in a domain name—this site, for example, is part of the ".com" top-level domain, for commercial sites.  The new top-level domain, ".xxx", would be reserved specifically for sexually themed content,  neatly partitioning off anything unsavory from the rest of the Web. Starting in 2011, adult website owners could start moving their sites over to the .xxx "voluntary, self-regulating community".  

Parents and employers, in theory, would be able to easily block all domains with that extension from home and work computers. But in practice, it won't be that easy, because (1) the move is voluntary for adult websites, (2) they aren't wild about moving, and (3) they won't have to give up their .com or other domains when they move—meaning they could simply register .xxx domains and point them at their existing .com sites.  In other words, it could essentially double the amount of porn on the Internet.

"The way in which ICANN has chosen to implement the .xxx domain will have no effect whatsoever in terms of filtering adult content on the Internet," said Aaron Kenny, the co-founder of site-screening software vendor InternetSafety.com. "As long as there are still porn sites with .com extensions, you will still need to filter them one by one. Instead of solving the problem, ICANN has exacerbated it by paving the way for the porn industry to double their online footprint."

So, in other words, ICANN will actually hurt, more than help, parents in their efforts to protect their kids from exposure to inappropriate web content.  Software providers will still have to do site-by-site filtering—which often blocks legitimate web sites.