ICANN Rejects Creation Of .XXX Domain For Porn Site

The body responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers on Friday rejected plans to establish a new ".XXX" domain for racy or sexually explicit websites.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said an ".XXX domain" would not resolve the issue of how to protect "vulnerable members of the community".

ICANN would also be obligated "to acquire a responsibility related to content and conduct," it said in a statement after a board meeting.

"This decision was the result of very careful scrutiny and consideration of all the arguments," ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf said, adding: "That consideration has led a majority of the Board to believe that the proposal should be rejected."

ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit body responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers. These include domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols.

Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet.

Two US senators last year proposed US legislation that would establish the new ".XXX" domain.

The bill proposed by senators Mark Pryor and Max Baucus, both Democrats, called upon the US Department of Commerce to exclude sexually charged content from established website domain names such as .gov, .com, .org, .net, and .edu.

Baucus said that a .XXX domain would help parents use filtering software to keep children from accessing pornographic sites, and would help prevent hapless Internet users from inadvertently stumbling onto sexually-explicit websites that they would prefer not to see.

ICANN was created in 1998 and is based in California.

According to the corporation's website more than 830 people from 81 countries gathered in Lisbon for what chairman Cerf called "one of ICANN's busiest and issue-intensive meetings ... which helped ICANN make substantial progress on numerous fronts" including the launch of a new website "with better navigation and new features to increase ICANN's transparency and accountability."

The 29th ICANN public meeting will be held June 25-29 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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