The Devil On Our Doorstep:
A few people have actually emailed me not understanding why .XXX top level domain is such a bad idea. They people say hey…it’s a good way to “protect the children”
For those who are asking that, I’m going to write about it here. Indeed many in our own industry don’t have a real handle on the far reaching impacts of .XXX
So let’s start where we let this happen and .XXX passes, with no opposition and nothing to hold it back from implementation (this is unlikely but to point out why .XXX is bad we need to look forward at what will happen should it pass)
OK so now porners have to buy the .XXX domains at highly inflated prices or risk losing the domain to someone else, at least pending trademark litigation.
Ok now you you have a domain that can easily be filtered out, companies might make browsers that will not allow .XXX to pass through. You might think I would be against that…I’m not I say the market should go where it is driven.
Even an ISP can completely block the .XXX top level domain…easily and you can use that ISP with certainty that your children cant access a .XXX domain, and I’m all for that as well. ISPs should be able to block any domain they wish and offer it as a feature, if the market buys it…good.
Now how long before, In the name of “protecting the children” will it take some US Congressman to say hey we need to FORCE all explicit material onto this .XXX domain. Never mind that this doesn’t apply except to US based websites, congress has yet to let a small fact like that interrupt a good protecting the children tirade. Not a good thing here huh?
Now how long does it take the state of Utah or Alabama to realize that…. hey we can use this…. An ISP is a public service and we can regulate those. We can REQUIRE that all ISPs doing business in our state block all .xxx domains or be subject to prosecution under obscenity law. Obviously this is NOT a good thing. Welcome to zoning laws….this is what adult oriented stores have been dealing with for years, it’s a nightmare and you know who gets rich? The lawyers that’s who.
So maybe you are still thinking hey that’s a small price to pay to insure that my kids aren’t exposed to the evils of pornography.
Again you are wrong. ever heard of peer to peer networks? Limewire? Bearshare? Morpheus? Bit Torrent sites? Usenet? These are all dot coms (OK not usenet necessairly but the others are) and they will continue to be. they are decentralized, worldwide and unprosecuteable as entities under current law.
Now guess were your little darlings are getting their porn? it isn’t .XXX nor will it be. It will be the same .com where they get it now, the peer to peer, filesharing networks.
So when it’s all said and done, what did .XXX do for us. Well it made some rich lawyers richer. It made the companies selling the .xxx domains at inflated prices richer. But our kids are still waist deep in all the free porn they want. We now have court battles all over the place and many law abiding decent citizens who want some porn for whatever reason will be denied that choice all because we didn’t look through the eyepiece on the door before we opened it and let the devil in.
So You ask, Is there an answer? Yes, thats coming next update.
