The New .XXX Domain Name is Good News for Parents

If you know where adult content lives it’s easier to choose not to go there

Published: June 3, 2005

On June 1 st the group responsible for overseeing the naming of things on the Internet announced a new domain name: XXX. .XXX would identify those web sites that have adult content. This wouldn’t mandatory; it would be voluntary but there would be certain incentives for providers of adult content to use the .XXX extension. But the biggest win is for consumers, because with .XXX to help identity the content, people who want it can find it and those who don’t can stay far away.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

When you search for places on the web, those last letters after the “dot” in the address you type refer to the domain name. Domain names offer clues as to the origin of the content you’ll find on the site.

Just like the packaging label that you find on everything from meat to breakfast cereal, a domain name can give you some indication of what’s inside the package, before you open it. “Stanford.edu is a website from an educational organization. “Whitehouse.gov” is government sponsored content. (Whitehouse.com by the way, was a porn site for a number of years until a new law put some pressure on it. Today it is a public records finder site.) Two letter codes like .de or . uk tell you that the content originates in Germany or the UK respectively.

.XXX TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

If the adult content providers volunteer to use the .XXX extension then filtering programs can easily identify a site with adult content and block it. At the same time, adults who want to see adult content know where to go to find it. Over the long term this should cut down on spam to other solicitations.

And now that .XXX will be overseen by the same group that monitors other Internet domains some “best practices” can be enforced. It’s already been decided that if your site depicts sexually explicit pictures of minors it cannot use the .XXX name. Using .XXX is a way for web content providers to show that they are trying to do the right thing in a number of other ways, too. For example, they won’t be prosecuted under a law that makes it an offense to use misleading addresses that could expose a child to adult content.

WHY NOT .KIDS?

For years experts have been debating the merits of .XXX domain name that creates a red light district in cyberspace vs. a .kids domain name where kids could find safe harbor in cyberspace . The .kids domain is a great idea and it actually exists, but the problem has been that creators of kids content cannot always afford to stay in the business of keeping kids safe (for example parental permission is required if you want the site to be interactive and accept their email address).

.XXX is not without it’s problems. Plenty of content providers will choose to remain at their old .com sites. Many will choose to ignore best practices, I’m sure. But, by recognizing and legitimizing the .XXX name the adult content on the web can be easily identified and self-lableled, and that’s a good thing for parents.