'The United States [government] has asked the Internet's regulator to postpone the creation of a new ".xxx" domain for sex-oriented web sites, citing an "unprecedented" level of protests.'
The chairman of ICANN's Government Advisory Committee, Mohd Sharil Tarmizi, also wrote ICANN officials last week urging delay and expressing "a strong sense of discomfort" among many countries, which he did not name. Gallagher's comments, however, carry greater weight because his agency has veto power over ICANN decisions given the U.S. government's role in funding early development of the internet and selecting ICANN in 1998 to oversee domain name administration.
If the new top-level domain can successfully demarcate adult from non-adult content, they would arguably serve a useful function in a cyberspace increasingly congested by adult materials. It would also make it much easier for content filtering programs to operate effectively -- by just blocking all content from websites ending in .xxx, for example. Certainly, it's not quite clear just how the matter evokes 'a strong sense of discomfort' -- it's not like avoiding the new TLD is going to make internet pornography disappear. However, unless accompanied by laws prohibiting adult content from display in non .xxx extensions, its segregating function may not prove as effective as hoped.
Originally by ABC News: Science and Technology, 12:03 PM