Is it Time for.XXX Domains?

Will you lose your adult names? Will they be censored? Will there be new competition? It is all up for grabs this week, as ICANN discusses the potential for a .xxx TLD. The stated purpose of the TLD is to safeguard children from pornography, and to provide an extension that serves as a label. This label can then be screened and filtered easily, drawing comparisons to a rating on a movie.

What is left unsaid, is that this invites a discussion on web censorship, and whether adult .com names will be censored in the coming years — if .xxx is truly a replacement for rather than an addition to the current adult web ecosystem.

As background, this week ICANN is very much expected to discuss the future of .xxx domains as part of its ICANN 37 conference in Nairobi, Kenya. On February, 21, 2010, an independent review panel ruled against ICANN for denying the ICM registry’s application for a .xxx gTLD. The result is that ICANN is under pressure to move forward with the new gTLD or risk being faced with a lawsuit.

Whether .xxx names are released, whether they are censored and whether adult dot com names might be restricted is all TBD.