Today’s “Net Parent”—a term for parents raising kids who will grow up in an electronically connected world—got a great potential boost after the announcement of the “.XXX” top level domain (TLD). While it remains true that those new to the web are most familiar with the dot com domain, recent additions like .biz and .tv have become nearly as well-known as the venerable .net, .edu, and .org TLD’s. The majority of today’s Internet users most likely do not remember the .xxx fight during the last round of TLD additions.
After .xxx was proposed, religious fanatics of all ilks came out in droves to oppose it. After all, it was associated with the word “porn” and therefore had to be bad, right? Religious organizations and tele-evangelists all said it would cause us to be inundated with porn online. Yea, we wouldn’t want to have a situation where our junk mail folders are full of porn would we? Oh, wait… So. Due to overwhelming organized opposition by religious zealots and let’s not forget—opportunistic politicians, who were equally outraged I can assure you—the greatest opportunity to filter adult-based content from home networks was lost to families around the world for the time being.
When the debate first took place, the adult industry was seeking to have its own corner of the web where they could be easily found and operate without scrutiny. This was in the day when there was still some concern that the forces of online censorship would eventually stifle adult content providers. Since then, all efforts to police the Internet have failed. Adult content providers are now a bit more skiddish about getting corralled and many no longer see a benefit to having its own corner of the web. This last fact may be because everyone knows how to use “the Google.” Finding Playboy and all of its offshoots is no more difficult than Googling “Playboy.”
Ultimately, the effectiveness of the .xxx domain as a filter will depend on getting the lion’s share of adult content providers to use it. This raises the question of whether or not to make its use mandatory. For example, if all adult content was on a .xxx TLD, it would be no more difficult than adding a single line to the hosts file an a given machine or configuring the typical network router that provides connectivity to most homes and businesses to block all outgoing requests with addresses ending with .xxx. Making such a modification would be trivial and take only seconds. It could not only prevent the loading of adult based web pages but also prevent sexually explicit images from appearing in email. Of course, I can think of a handful of ways off the top of my head to circumvent this kind of filtering but one would have to deliberately do so and once done, those cards have been irrevocably shown.
That said, it will probably be easier to get cooperation from mainstream content providers who actually do not want to serve content to minors because it is not in their interests to offend parents, many of whom are customers of these same companies whether they want to admit it or not. The problem will be getting the illicit, fly-by-night operators and spammers, who are at this point used to circumventing content filters out of habit if for no other reason. This means that the rate of adoption may now be a problem as alluded to in this NYT article. Even with this potential hole in the dam, it will still be significantly beneficial to have the majority of “mainstream porn” operating BEHIND an easily filterable TLD . (pun intended)
At this point, it seems enough of a done deal that religious zealots and politicians won’t be able to shoot themselves in the foot this time, no matter how determined they may be to do so. Unfortunately, having missed a golden opportunity to make this move when it would have done the most good, only time will tell if the rate of adoption by the porn industry will allow the new TLD to be effective for parents trying to protect their kids from unwanted sexual materials online.
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Great news for the modern Net Parent
Today’s “Net Parent”—a term for parents raising kids who will grow up in an electronically connected world—got a great potential boost after the announcement of the “.XXX” top level domain (TLD). While it remains true that those new to the web are most familiar with the dot com domain, recent additions like .biz and .tv have become nearly as well-known as the venerable .net, .edu, and .org TLD’s. The majority of today’s Internet users most likely do not remember the .xxx fight during the last round of TLD additions.
After .xxx was proposed, religious fanatics of all ilks came out in droves to oppose it. After all, it was associated with the word “porn” and therefore had to be bad, right? Religious organizations and tele-evangelists all said it would cause us to be inundated with porn online. Yea, we wouldn’t want to have a situation where our junk mail folders are full of porn would we? Oh, wait… So. Due to overwhelming organized opposition by religious zealots and let’s not forget—opportunistic politicians, who were equally outraged I can assure you—the greatest opportunity to filter adult-based content from home networks was lost to families around the world for the time being.
When the debate first took place, the adult industry was seeking to have its own corner of the web where they could be easily found and operate without scrutiny. This was in the day when there was still some concern that the forces of online censorship would eventually stifle adult content providers. Since then, all efforts to police the Internet have failed. Adult content providers are now a bit more skiddish about getting corralled and many no longer see a benefit to having its own corner of the web. This last fact may be because everyone knows how to use “the Google.” Finding Playboy and all of its offshoots is no more difficult than Googling “Playboy.”
Ultimately, the effectiveness of the .xxx domain as a filter will depend on getting the lion’s share of adult content providers to use it. This raises the question of whether or not to make its use mandatory. For example, if all adult content was on a .xxx TLD, it would be no more difficult than adding a single line to the hosts file an a given machine or configuring the typical network router that provides connectivity to most homes and businesses to block all outgoing requests with addresses ending with .xxx. Making such a modification would be trivial and take only seconds. It could not only prevent the loading of adult based web pages but also prevent sexually explicit images from appearing in email. Of course, I can think of a handful of ways off the top of my head to circumvent this kind of filtering but one would have to deliberately do so and once done, those cards have been irrevocably shown.
That said, it will probably be easier to get cooperation from mainstream content providers who actually do not want to serve content to minors because it is not in their interests to offend parents, many of whom are customers of these same companies whether they want to admit it or not. The problem will be getting the illicit, fly-by-night operators and spammers, who are at this point used to circumventing content filters out of habit if for no other reason. This means that the rate of adoption may now be a problem as alluded to in this NYT article. Even with this potential hole in the dam, it will still be significantly beneficial to have the majority of “mainstream porn” operating BEHIND an easily filterable TLD . (pun intended)
At this point, it seems enough of a done deal that religious zealots and politicians won’t be able to shoot themselves in the foot this time, no matter how determined they may be to do so. Unfortunately, having missed a golden opportunity to make this move when it would have done the most good, only time will tell if the rate of adoption by the porn industry will allow the new TLD to be effective for parents trying to protect their kids from unwanted sexual materials online.
Comments
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