In one of the many emails I get, one of the organizations I subscribe to sent out an email stating that ICANN is considering giving the pornography industry their own domain extension ".xxx" (triple x).

This is an excerpt from the email;

ICANN is studying the possibility of giving the pornography industry their own domain. ICANN would ask the pornographers to voluntarily move to the new triple X domain which would contain nothing but pornography. There would be NO LAW TO FORCE THEM to the new triple X domain.

What do you think?

Would it help give parents and others a tool to use in helping keep their children from accessing such sites by being able to block the .xxx in their routers and "Net Nanny" type software?

The email I received went on to suggest that by giving them their own domain extension that the number of sites would increase.

I've got mixed feelings on this. I'd like to see them require that all the porno sites have the .xxx extension, but then you get into another whole can of worms that I don't think should be opened!

Also, I don't think that having a .xxx extension would cause more porno sites. There are tons of them now and more every day and there will continue to be more whether they have their own extension or not.

Anyway...Some thoughts?

I don't think any type of website, based on content, should be restricted to a certain domain type. No organization should have to make a judgement about whether any web site, based on its content, is violating some domain rule. That goes against the whole spirit of the internet.

Otherwise, I don't give a damn whether porn site operators choose to all use this proposed extension or not. Let 'em. I also don't care if there are fewer or more porn sits in the future.

Andrew

Since no one has been able to define porn ("...but I know it when I see it,") this is a marketing issue and a parenting issue, not a government issue.

IMHO, it's a bad idea all around.

Porn is a tough problem. Nobody wants young people stumbling into it. Of course, everybody is thinking they can just block the .xxx sites and all the problems go away, but they won't. Site operators will just adapt and people will still stumble into porn.

Think of it this way: What if we made .safe?

Isn't that the same problem with all the same nasty discussions?

Sutton nailed it really. Parent your kids and the Internet and all will be just fine. If you are an adult, then use the net responsibly and all will also be fine.

Agreed. It really is a parenting issue.

I was thinking that having a way to block it in a router or computer was just an added tool. Although as I mentioned in the first post, requiring them to use the .xxx domain opens up a whole different set of issues that I don't think are a good idea.

The pornographers are not honorable people and they (as missing_kskd mentions) will find other ways to allow people to "stumble" onto their sites.

Education and solid monitoring of your child's activities are the best defense against them.

Question for the panel ... would the attached qualify as porn?

http://www.glumbert.com/media/roleplay

Don't know if I even want to click on it to tell ya!!!!! LOL

could be one-o-dem sites that litters your screen with hundreds of porn "POPUPS"....LITERALLY!!!!! Now That's funny I Don't Care Who Ya Are!!!! LMAO

Some really great tips for the young people.

1. Do not put the computer somewhere private. Put it right where you can see it and set aside time to interact with them while using it. You will learn as will they. Trust and communication is built and these two are your most potent parenting tools.

2. When they are young, have them input destination sites from the Google search engine. By default Google will only display safe content (yeah it hoses it up once in a while, but it's the safest bet you have), and will correct the spellings too boot.

Little kids, who can't input a URL properly, are an easy target for porn, virii and spyware.

A solid option is a tell your parents first, amnesty policy. The last thing you want is for them to get into trouble, then hide it. So, they come to you, and it gets worked out in the open. This discourages a lot of bad behaviors while rewarding the good ones.

Some great kid activities:

Internet scavenger hunt. Have them find a solid source to prove a fact, or obtain some bit of information, or a picture, etc...

Make it a game as in I can show you that in x clicks!


Chat / myspace / im with them. If you can do this at work, so much the better. Your kids will tell you stuff via these means, they may not always tell you otherwise! (Funny, but totally true)

Play silly flash games, some have been linked here in the past, others are not hard to find.

NEOPETS!

(got hooked on this damn thing for a while --I was well over a million points with no end to the growth I tell you!)

Very educational and fun social gaming, networking and trading site. Play games for points, use points to buy things, collect, trade, and otherwise play with all the concepts of money, games of chance, risk / reward, etc... Fantastic.

I'm sure that there are some porn operators who "don't want" kids stumbling into their site in the same way that there are some tobacco companies who "don't want" young people trying their products (if you catch my drift). This is why a migration to .xxx won't completely eliminate the problem of Internet porn being viewed by minors and at workplaces. It might make it easier to get rid of most of the crap, though.

That video makes screwing the country look fun and sexy. You certainly could not show this on American broadcast TV. In Canada and some Euorpean countries, it might be considered OK (and amusing) during the late night hours.

Hah KSKD, my two youngest kids and my wife are addicted to Neopets. They are CONSTANTLY playing on that!

BTW: That video is great!

"I ain't gonna cut 'n run" "No! Don't pull out!"

Funny stuff, IMHO.

No, that's not porn at all. Also IMHO, this would be just fine on late night TV. Heck, they show "Southpark" don't they? (and worse)

I did note that there are no "naughty bits" shown in the video. It is shot in such a way that the viewer's mind fills in the blanks. If this is the only test for pornography, then it is not porn.

However, there is sexual innuendo in the language used (i.e. the double entendre, "No! Don't pull out!"). Many people might also say that this video appeals to the prurient interest (especially for men with a Statue of Liberty fetish*).

I could very well see somebody being penalized or dismissed for watching this at work, or an over-the-air television station being fined for airing it, even though I would not consider it pornographic.

* After hearing a Dr. Dean Edell show that made a reference to a pie-in-the-face fetish, I did an Internet search for this odd phenomenon. Sure enough, there were websites devoted to this. One site was strictly photos of women's faces covered with pie; there were no sexual parts of the body shown. However, this site carried a disclaimer that said that it should not be viewed by minors (despite the lack of nudity) because the photos are intended for fetishists (who consider themselves to be part of the "wet and messy" fetish community).

Yep. Gotta watch that site. It's pretty fun. For the kids, they trade stuff, play games, explore and buy / sell things.

For the older kids and adults, the selling of things and some manupulations that go with that are just totally fun and that's addicive for me.

Example: You can go to a place and buy scratch it tickets that may or may not be worth what you paid for them. (it's about 1/3 good) Now, some cards are extremely rare and feature some great winnings. Selling these at a premium will net you a lotta points, but you have to keep track of the trends.

They mix up the rarity. Also the cards are a good way to transfer points between players... The kids and I would watch this stuff (man, they pick up on trends like that!) and invest, promote and sell.

Confession time: One day I put a card, worth about 1200 in the shop for 860 points. Then I would wait about 5 seconds, then edit the price to 8600. There is always somebody walking around with too many points in their pocket, not paying any real attention. There are banks for that. (See, real life lesson right there!)

Of course, they snap it up at a total loss, caught up in the heat of the moment... Oh well, it's virtual right? After this worked a surprising number of times, one daring youngster messaged me with this: "I'm gonna tell, u changed the price!"

I sent back, "Yeah? Wanna buy another one?"

Brutal, but totally fun for an evening.

For all I know, this little scheme would probably still work nicely, given the cards are still a hot item.

Alfredo_t:
I've stumbled upon some similar sites,one was all about womens feet,in high heels,pressing the gas pedal in cars..A "Pedal Pushers" fetish site..
There was one other one,which was also pretty funny,but I can't remember what it was about now. (probably for the best!)

It's funny how you can do a search on Google/yahoo/etc. for something completely un-related,and still get "hits" for porn and other strange stuff. Ugh.

The first time that I heard about the "pedal pumping" fetish, I was doing a search on "well pump," my intent being to find information and pricing on a replacement pump for a water well on my property!!

Wow! A whole bunch of reponses to the subject of porn. Who would have guessed that?

Actually, I recall reading an article that website porn visits were falling.

However, the industry appears to be fighting back, with more free content (free, leading you to paysites), X-tube seems to be a good example. Anyone can get on there, seemingly without age verification or credit card (parents...watch out!), and it is filled with tripleX material. (I, of course, just "heard" about this...)