U.S. opposes .xxx domain

The United States, in the guise of the Commerce Department, is asking ICANN to delay final approval of a .xxx domain suffix for adult content websites.

The AP reports that Commerce has received more than 6,000 letters in opposition to any such porn-specific internet domain.

The story notes, as did UncommonSense when commenting on this several months ago, that use of the .xxx domain would be voluntary.

Skeptics note that porn sites are likely to keep their existing ".com" storefronts, even as they set up shop in the new ".xxx" domain name, reducing the effectiveness of any software filters set up to simply block all ".xxx" names.

Conservative groups such as the Family Research Council also expressed worries that creating a ".xxx" suffix would also legitimize pornographers.

Frankly, for reasons having nothing to do with the objections of the religious right, ICANN really might as well not bother with introducing .xxx to the World Wide Web.

Not only will porn sites continue to use .com, .net or whatever other suffixes they might be using, but .xxx is likely to be co-opted by non-porn sites hoping to boost their search engine profiles. This would render the adult content domain suffix practically useless.