Since the birth of Internet, Adult & Porn sites have attracted maximum traffic. Infact, it has been the only evergreen vertical on the internet, no bubble burst’s here. Its has always been boom-time for porn sites.
There have been talks about having a separate dedicated Top Level Domain for Adult and Porn sites for quite some time now. And finally, yesterday ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Board approved the proposal for the same.
But, you will not start seeing dot-xxx domains immediately – There still needs due-diligence to be done, before you start seeing these TLD’s on the internet. Also, as per the reports, it will not be compulsory for existing adult sites to move to new TLDs!
So, the question that comes to my mind is – Why a separate TLD for Adult in first place ?
I read a comment on Slashdot on this particular aspect and it completely echoes my feelings about it. Here is what the comment was
Getting .xxx TLD accomplishes only a few things that I can see:
- Puts pressure on all sorts of sites to operate only under a .xxx domain whenever a loud enough moral group insist that it should be categorised as dirty.
- Falsely creates a sense of safety amongst idiots who think they can block .xxx and filter out "the bad stuff".
- Creates a sense of unjustified expectation amongst a different set of idiots who immediately decide that just because ICANN has created this TLD, that any site they deem improper that operates outside the hierarchy is engaged in some terrible underhandedness for daring to do so, trying to expose innocent people to their content.
- Instantly tars anyone who visits a site in .xxx domain in the eyes of moralisers and authority groups, regardless of whether the site is donkeyporn.xxx or just some site that was pushed to register under .xxx because it deals with mature topics.
- Creates artificial segregation along lines decided by minority moral bodies. I.e. Adult content has to be treated differently. We don’t have a separate TLD for religion, or science – why must adult be so treated?
- Make pot loads of money for ICANN and registrars everywhere.
Would love to hear readers thoughts on this !
absolutely useless .. apart from making some money they will serve no purpose. coz tumoro if the govt choses to ban isps from xxx domains they will still stay put everywhere else. Also the kids of today are 10 times smarter than ppl who make rules. they have already heard of proxy servers and know how to browse anonymously.
The introduction of “xxx” will have no effect on Adult Dotcom websites: they will remain unchanged. There is a possibility that some of the Adult websites may get duplicated as “xxx”, so perhaps people will get to see the same content twice.
All ICANN has done is to re-affirm that fragmentation on the web is alive and well, and at the same time show that alternate webspaces are not the bringer of doom and gloom as some would have the public believe. In this regard, Internet users now can also create almost any Domain Name and TLD without limits, completely free.
Sites such as Dashworlds.com provide brand new Dashcom (not Dotcom) domain names. Dashcoms are addresses in format “sports-com”, “india-business”, “social-network” and of course any “xxx” extension you might desire. Totally outside the realm and control of ICANN, Internet users can create any domain in any language, instantly and at no cost.
With users and members in over 90 countries worldwide, resolution is via an APP; although new ISP Link-Ins are available to make this unnecessary (ISP Link-Ins that are also available to ICANN).
Having just one Internet floating in infinite cyberspace is like saying you can go anywhere in the India as long as you stay in Sehor. So now, just as in the India (and everywhere else in the world) the Internet has more than one option.