.xxx domains go live, each site scanned daily by McAfee

Rick

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After much ado between the adult entertainment industry, ICM Registry and Internet domain governing body ICANN, .xxx domains finally started going live this Tuesday. Even early this morning, the number of live .xxx addresses had hit six digits and that is, without a doubt, still growing.

"Touch it. Own it. Feel it". That's the tag line for the new top-level domain (TLD). The new suffix was lobbied by ICM Registry to help identify adult sites in order to, as the company's CEO Stuart Lawley vaguely puts it, "address the unique needs of the online adult entertainment industry." ICANN eventually approved the new TLD earlier this year but not without a fuss. News of .xxx domains dates back to as early as 2001. 

However, unlike any other domain in existence, a deal has been struck with McAfee to scan each .xxx on a daily basis for malware. Also included for the $80/year domain purchase cost is a MetaCert electronic Family Safety label. This employs an existing, nearly ubiquitous framework that aims to simplify content filtering for parents and organizations.

Not surprsingly, various religious and family-oriented organizations have spoken out against the domain suffix, claiming it actually makes smutty websites easier to find and in that way, endorses them. Perhaps more surprisingly however, some adult industry players have denounced .xxx too, likening it to extortion because virtually any existing pornography business is forced to purchase a domain to protect their brand. For large companies, this can run up a bill for thousands of dollars a year. It is no stretch of the imagination to think this probably makes ICM Registry very happy.

Universities and certain other businesses are not pleased either. Despite not being in the pornography business, such institutions find it necessary to protect their image by snapping up related .xxx domains before someone else does. A website like harvard.xxx could pose a brand-image nightmare for such a school.

ICANN has also set up www.buy.xxx, a purchasing portal for prospective .xxx applicants.

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It's about time! I think this should've been in play a long time ago and I even feel it should become mandatory for pr0n sites to be moved to this domain... eventually. Then I could just ban my kids' computers from getting here and set my home page to a random site there ;) .
 
Yep, since they didn't require porn sites to move to the new domain, all this does is double the number of porn sites. :)
 
I kinda agree, it would make the lifes easier for anti-virus company's, it would make it easier to pick out fake porn sites (if it ends in anything other than .xxx then its fake) and also makes filtering easy. I can't see any down sides?
 
burty117 said:
I kinda agree, it would make the lifes easier for anti-virus company's, it would make it easier to pick out fake porn sites (if it ends in anything other than .xxx then its fake) and also makes filtering easy. I can't see any down sides?

Well they may not necessarily be fake just because they aren't .xxx. I'm sure many sites will stay with the .com ending and probably use .com addresses for redirecting
 
AnonymousSurfer said:
burty117 said:
I kinda agree, it would make the lifes easier for anti-virus company's, it would make it easier to pick out fake porn sites (if it ends in anything other than .xxx then its fake) and also makes filtering easy. I can't see any down sides?

Well they may not necessarily be fake just because they aren't .xxx. I'm sure many sites will stay with the .com ending and probably use .com addresses for redirecting

I meant as in, if they were forced to use the .xxx domain, then it would make it easy to spot a fake one.
 
Is McAfee hiring? It sound like a tough job scanning porn sites all day, but I think I'm up for the challenge :)
 
Paging Captaincranky.......


Burty said:
I kinda agree, it would make the lifes easier for anti-virus company's, it would make it easier to pick out fake porn sites (if it ends in anything other than .xxx then its fake) and also makes filtering easy. I can't see any down sides?

Now when you say "fake porn sites, are suggesting silicone and non silicone designations?
I think they could go farther for designating fetish sites as well, for instance there could be .XXXL for the fans who favor the more Rubenesque types.
 
Does that mean tumblr needs to go to an xxx domain?
Just because it exists does not mean everyone will use it voluntarily.
 
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