.xxx domain legislation opposed

Kimono 03-18-2006

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), an organizations that fights to safeguard the industry from governmental regulation, says that it is opposed to legislation introduced today by Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark) that would “ghettoize” content-based speech on the Internet by creating a mandatory .xxx top-level domain.

The bill, titled the “Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2006,” requires the Department of Commerce within 30 days after enactment to direct ICANN to approve a top-level “international” domain for “material that is harmful to minors, such as [a] domain name ending in .xxx,” and establishes a timeline of 60 days for ICANN to “commence and complete” the application process for the establishment of the new domain.

Within 6 months of the establishment of the TLD, all adult websites are required to register a .xxx address if they contain sexually explicit material that conforms with the definition of “material that is harmful to minors” as defined in the bill, with civil penalties for lack of compliance. The Department of Commerce is also tasked with setting and enforcing the civil penalties.

“The Free Speech Coalition reiterates its opposition to .xxx,” said FSC Executive Director Michelle L. Freridge. “Our original concern was that Congress would make content-based segregation of speech on the Internet mandatory, and that concern has been borne out by this bill. Other core objections to the proposal remain as well.”

The FSC offered these opposition points:
• .XXX Will Not Create a Framework to Protect Children
• There Is No Compelling Need For .XXX
• .XXX Will Lead To The Ghettoization of Protected Speech
• .XXX Will be Regulated, Not Self-Regulated
• .XXX Does Not Have The Support of the Adult Entertainment Industry
• .KIDS TLD Would Provide a Far More Effective Solution

In light of this development, the FSC says that they call on Congress to reject this bill in favor of solutions, such as .KIDS, that will truly protect our children from inappropriate content on the Internet.

Hsoolien

Congress whould have Zero control in regard to TLFs who the fuck is the US to dictate any bit of how something with no county of origin is controlled?


That said .xxx would be a good add, and so would .kids (with some sort of non-profit group as a monitr)

GIR

i would like to see if its a x-rated page to have that, same thing with kids pages havinf maybe .kid at the end or somehting. it will sort things out for partents i think. and orginasie the internet a big more. but it will not happen. the interenet is soo open to be controled to much.

Ice

Too me this is a cheap and easy way for alot of places to easily filter out things for kids. But pretty much its pointless. With any website address the first things someone thinks about is a .com address. Other then that I think its pretty lame. just gives out more address that people will have a harder time figuring out later on.

screwstonmami21

I agree with the .xxx. It is a good idea so people know where they are going,gettign sent to or when they google something, what kind of site it is.

Hsoolien

I think a restricted .kids is a better bet as then they can guarentee everything under it is kid frinedly

prfreak

This would essetially allow the porn companies have more domains because the bill would not force them to delete the .com names.. so they would get the .xxx domain, too. So, it would give them more searche pop ups.. Parents just need to limit the kids to one family computer and one computer in the parents room that only can be used in the company of the parents. Other than that no one can really stop the pirating even if the government came down harder. Where there is a will, there is a way..