What difference will new .xxx domains make?
After lots of headscratching and legal wrangling, the domain name authority ICANN has finally approved the registration of .xxx domains.
That's great news for ICM Registry, who have been pushing the idea since 2004. They'll be the sole vendors of the new domain, and have already received over 110,000 registration applications. At $60 a go - kerr-ching!
Conservative groups have protested that this move legitimises internet porn, and it will be even easier to search for (could finding porn be any easier?). Some sex addiction counsellors have also expressed their concerns over the increased accessibility (again, could it be ...?). And of course, internet filter companies don't like the idea very much. Nobody is going to pay for software that only needs to block one domain. I could probably write that code in BASIC.
For me, a more legitimate concern is raised by the free speech community. If the .xxx domain ever becomes compulsory for adult sites, what will be the definition of 'adult'? Will erotic art and sex educational sites need to move into the virtual red light district?
But I don't think the liberals, or internet filter companies, have much to worry about. Whilst I support the .xxx concept, I can't see it having much impact on any of these fronts.
Porn sites would need a significant business incentive to move away from all their established .coms, and all the Google rankings and inbound links that generate their traffic. They may well join the .xxx club, but they'll no doubt retain all their original domains too.
And I just can't envisage a legal clampdown that coerces all porn sites, blogs, chatrooms, torrent sites etc to move to the new domain. Only in your dreams, ICM Registry!
Now I do support the ambition of the ICANN decision to make "a voluntary self-regulating community" within the porn sector. ICM has a list of best business practices that .xxx registrants will be expected to follow, including:
- Safeguard children from being marketed or targeted online
- Use and promote accurate labeling and meta-tagging
- Combat the use of unlawful malicious codes and technologies (e.g., spoofing)
- Oppose fraudulent, anonymous and unsolicited bulk SPAM advertising adult entertainment
All of this is very welcome, even if it does sound a bit vague. I look forward to seeing it in practice.
For people who watch a lot of porn, nothing really changes. They just have another domain name to remember. For those who don't want to see porn, they might be less likely to be bombarded with porn spam, pop-ups and spoof search results.
For people who are working to overcome porn addiction, .xxx domains might one day make filtering easier. That's a positive thing. But as I have commented before, filtering isn't the solution. It can be a helpful tactic, but the root of the issue lives offline. We need to address why, as individuals, we find porn so compulsively irresistible. And that's nothing to do with the letters xxx.
Porn Game Over is Jason's self-help plan for quitting the habit. Click here for a fresh approach to internet pornography addiction...
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22 comments
QTN: Why we find porn so
QTN: Why we find porn so compulsively irresistible?
ANS: Porn subverts our naturally evolved sexual responses (sexual arousal) and it does this using images & film but these sexual responses are thus fooled & taken out of context. There natural context is within a loving intimate relationship with another person. Thus you have the pure arousal experience but without the relationship, it is thus like sex in the head NOT with your body. Real loving sexual intimacy is sex with your whole body mind (entire being), it is inclusive of your feelings & desires. Porn focuses mainly on objects & body parts thus it is reductive & exclusive (excludes feelings) in fact it numbs the real feelings.
The .XXX top level domain is
The .XXX top level domain is a rather naive idea & its doomed to failure from day one. Well not in the way the US authorities hope for. The porn industry is an industry that always looks for opportunities that it can exploit for financial gains, & the only way the porn industry will use or even back this new domain is if there are large profits to be made from it.
The porn industry will use the new .XXX domain but it will do so to make extra profits above & beyond what it does already. The porn industry wont remove or modify any of its other domains or sites and this means nothing will change, in fact the end result will be even more porn in more locations than before. In summary it wont make one jot of difference and it will only increase the sheer volume of total porn easily available on the internet. It wont work IMO.
Its also worth bearing in
Its also worth bearing in mind that the Global pornography industry is "The BIGGEST & MOST PROFITABLE" industry on the planet!!! Porn is bigger than the Arms trade, bigger than TV & media & publishing, bigger than ALL advertising put together, bigger than the motor trade. In fact porn is so vast its almost incomprehensible in scale, its literally mind bogglingly BIG!! Its profits are in the hundreds of billions of $$ each year.
YES! porn is also BIGGER than
YES! porn is also BIGGER than all pharmaceutical companies & their profits put together, also bigger than the illegal drugs trade globally.
You know, I wish they would
You know, I wish they would just take porn off the Internet. If they did then they wouldn't have to worry about all this stuff, there would be fewer people wasting their time and money watching it, and parents wouldn't have to worry about their children on the net. After all, any safeguard will eventually be hacked. There are always backdoors so wouldn't it be wise and logical to just get rid of it all together? I think it would.
Hello Z, YES! would be
Hello Z,
YES! would be nice if all porn magically disappeared from the internet but sadly ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!! not soon not ever. This is due to the sheer amount of money & profit that porn generates. (Porn is THE BIGGEST industry on the planet).
NOTE:- its already possible to exclude ALL porn from the internet experience via OpenDNS free content filtering.
If pornography didn't
If pornography didn't generate Trillions of $$ it wouldn't exist at all. And neither would the internet quite possibly?
If .XXX takes off the only
If .XXX takes off the only result will be an increase in the sheer volume of porn on the internet. It will be exploited by the porn production companies to make yet more profits.
Alex - can you please provide
Alex - can you please provide your source for stating the porn industry is worth $trillions and is the largest industry in the world? The only source I found estimates $5b-$10b, way behind scores of other industries.
Hi Nic, "revenues from the
Hi Nic,
"revenues from the industry to be about $12bn, though in the US". (this is the US alone not including all other countries involved in the porn industry) Source: Guardian Newspaper.
**Therefore an estimated turn over & profits in Trillions is not an outrageous guess. But it is a guess!
Dear Alex I disagree, I
Dear Alex
I disagree, I think all things are possible. I believe one word can change a mood, one voice can change a nation, and one life can change the world. Jesus did.
Dear Z, I'm an Atheist,
Dear Z,
I'm an Atheist, that's why I don't believe in such religious twaddle. I don't believe in the mythology of Jesus your wasting your words on me.
I don't think she should
I don't think she should blame the industry here. Porn does and will exist, so does the alcohol business, so does the cigarette business. I smoke, I've tried many times to quit and I haven't been able to. I can't blame the industry for that. I like drinking here and there, but I don't have a drinking problem. Do I blame the alcohol business? No I don't. Would I be upset if there was no alcohol in the world? Yes I would kinda be upset. They can't stop selling alcohol, so alcoholic people can stop their problem..what about me that I don't have a drinking problem?!?!? Its not my fault that these people can not control themselves when starting drinking. I'm sure its not easy for them either, but I am just trying to make a point.
I can't blame the porn industry for my husband not wanting to have sex with his wife, but would rather masturbate to porn. Its my husbands decisions that created all this mess, not the industry.
I am not trying to be harsh and mean. But we MAKE our own decisions, and we should deal with them without blaming anybody else. I don't think it helps either.
We are 100% responsible for our own decisions!!!!
Dear Alex Tell me about your
Dear Alex
Tell me about your religion, I wish to know more about it. I only know what I've been told and that is that you believe that there is no all knowing, all powerful god. But I can't help but think this is so easily disproven by simple logic that I'm drawn to the conclusion that there must be more to it. Because the only way to know that there is no all knowing being out there is to be one yourself. So please tell me what I'm missing.
Hello F, YEP!! I have to
Hello F,
YEP!! I have to 100% agree with you very much. If you view porn "that's a choice you make", you alone are responsible for what you choose to look at online or else where in life.
NOTE:- The difference or distinction given the alcohol / drinks industry example is that, alcoholism is a medically recognized disease and those people like the famous footballer George Best. The alcohol is nothing short of a toxin or acts like a poison that ultimately is capable of killing them. This is NOT the same as someone who enjoys an occasional drink or even a person who gets drunk occasionally. There is a BIG difference. Porn however cannot be compared in quite the same way or on quite the same level. Porn is not something that is physically ingested but it is psychologically absorbed though & its still has a powerful effect.
PORN is just the MEANS & PORN COMPULSION & damaged or ruined relationships is the END RESULT, the outcome for many.
**PORN is NOT an addiction IMO this is just a way to abdicate personal responsibility for your own choices. Addiction implies victim-hood were as compulsion, or obsession means you are making a choice at some level. Therefore you are NOT a victim & therefore its possible to make better, more conscious more informed & empowered choices. choices not to choose porn.
Dear F I was just reading
Dear F
I was just reading your comment and I can't help but wonder. What about people who accidentally run across porn on the internet? Isn't it worth getting rid of something that may cause people to fall just to save one person from it? I agree that it is our choice, but why have that choice? Why allow something like that out there, that could ruin other people's lives, just so I can get a few moments of pleasure? While i agree completely that it is our choice, i find my self asking why have it out there to tempt others with?
If I could wave a magic wand
If I could wave a magic wand and change the world to one where there is no porn on the Internet, I would not. The police state required to accomplish that feat would be horrifying.
Regarding the "porn is not an addiction" meme: If an individual wishes to stop or control a behavior and cannot, if that individual accelerates in their behavior in the face of negative consequences, and if that individual has to seek out increasingly intense behavior to satisfy, he is an addict. Calling porn an addiction does not abdicate personal responsibility in any way. We addicts are not responsible for having an addiction, but we are responsible for our recovery.
Dear Z, I'm not sure how old
Dear Z,
I'm not sure how old you are, and I am not trying to be smart, but you will "accendentaly" be against a lot of things. I think I've used this example before, but walking around the stores I come across shoes that I absolutely love, its my decision to walk way and not buy them, or spend money on it, just so I can have them. If I decide to buy them, I know I am kinda ruining it because I'm spending money on something I will probably never wear( I have hundreds of shoes). So yea I don't think people, especially kids, should be able to come across porn sites. But that's why parents put filters for their kids, and grown ups make their decisions to watch it or not watch it.
Don't take me wrong I would be very happy if porn disappear today, but that's not gonna happen.
I am a smoker. You can see
I am a smoker. You can see cigarettes in almost every store you go. It was my decision to buy the first pack, and the second, and the third. Its my decision to continue smoking. I can't blame the stores for selling cigarettes cause they are not putting a gun to my head and force me into buying them.
I may not be very old, but
I may not be very old, but I'm old enough to know that kids look up to grown-ups. They want to be just like them. They most likely wouldn't admit it tho, but that's not the point. The point. I'm trying to make is simple. Kids watch adults and mimic their behavior in most cases. If a kid knows that adults look at porn on the Internet, then they will want to too. So the question I am saying is simple, why risk polluting a young mind just for a few moments of pleasure?
Dear Z, I absolutely agree
Dear Z,
I absolutely agree with you. I wouldn't want my kids to start watching porn at 12. But porn is NOT going to disappear. So we have to learn to work around it.
The first step is accepting it and taking responsabilities for our actions.By being better people we can be better parents, even though our parents might not have been so careful with us being exposed to porn images.
I am from Europe and live in US. In europe you see more sex on TV than here in US. That's different I think, because its mostly two people have sexual activities, which doesn't have the same affect to kids as orgies and weird things you can find on porn sites sometimes.
I agree on everything except
I agree on everything except one thing. Porn will only be around as long as we allow it. I know it can't completely disappear, but that isn't a reason to accept it. I think we should do what we can to stop it, and no I don't mean anything illegal. Does that make since?
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