amphichon

The proposal for an ”.xxx” top-level domain was officially rejected by ICANN yesterday, and the word on the net is that ultimately it was pressure from the conservative and religious elements in the US and allies that sank it. The most ironic thing about the situation though is that, were this TLD to be put into place and porn sites shifted toward using it, the net would largely become a “safer” place for their conservative and religious children, who of course must be protected from boobies at all cost. (Never mind that most of the younger children currently surfing the net have a much more recent recollection of said boobies than the old crotchety white men who are so dead set on protecting their innocent young minds.)

This bit from Senator Helen Coonan, Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, is representative of the self-congratulatory short-sightedness of the folks behind this decision.

The Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, issued a statement yesterday, welcoming the decision by ICANN, to block the establishment of a .xxx domain for adult content.

“This is a positive outcome that has prevented the creation of a domain that could have acted as a haven for illegal and offensive content,” Senator Coonan said.

Yes – thanks to our decisive action, no such haven for illegal and offensive content exists anywhere on the internet. Oh wait.

“The Australian Government had previously expressed our opposition to the creation of a .xxx domain through representations made to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee by my Department.

“The Australian Government had grave concerns about the .xxx proposal, stating strong objection to any measure that would lead to an increase in pornography on the Internet, push offensive content on vulnerable groups or create a haven for illegal material.

Oh my. Let’s take these in order.

”... would lead to an increase in pornography on the Internet…”
Excuse me, Senator – have you been on the internet?

”... push offensive content on vulnerable groups…”
So… by making it very clear that a site contains boobies, and employing a consistent, easy to recognize and easy to filter or block domain for such sites, we’re somehow pushing offensive content on vulnerable groups?

”... or create a haven for illegal material.”
In what way does adding a new TLD create a haven for illegal material? If anything, sites in the .xxx domain will be more heavily scrutinized than they were before, since now that they’re not scattered around every corner of the net, they’re easier for regulators to find and, er, regulate. Besides, since they know that .xxx sites specifically intend to show boobies, I promise you that your crusty old white men so adamant on protecting the young and innocent will be monitoring those sites closely. Seriously. Like a hawk. A hawk with Kleenex.

“ICANN’s decision is also a reassurance that this body, responsible for overseeing the administration of domains at a global level, has robust decision-making processes that take account of stakeholders’ input.

“The ability for stakeholders, including Governments, to provide public policy input into the decision-making process is a strength of the ICANN model.

This terminology really rubs me the wrong way. Senator, let me remind you of something – the Internet is not a corporation. It is not publically traded and there is no board of directors. The internet does not belong to you, or to ICANN, or to your government, or any other organization. It belongs to all of us. “Stakeholders”? Every man, woman and chid who uses the internet is a “stakeholder”. And as a stakeholder in the Internet, somehow – an oversight, I’m sure – I was not consulted on this decision. Personally I think an ”.xxx” TLD is a good idea. Where do I vote?

“Australia’s involvement in international discussions surrounding the .xxx proposal has been consistent with the Government’s long standing interest in ensuring that Australians using the Internet are able to do so in a safe and secure way.”

And in other news, in our ongoing efforts in ensuring that Australians using magazine stands are able to do so in a safe and secure way, we have asked all newsmongers to move the skin mags from behind the counter and distribute them randomly among the other periodicals throughout their shops. (All the young innocent kids: “Hooray!”)

Ultimately, it’s not so much the fact that this proposal was shot down that bothers me. Personally, while I think the rationale behind it was good, it doesn’t matter much to me. If I want porn online, honest, I think I’ll be able to find some. It’s more the why it was shot down that I find disappointing. Sadly, this is apparently the same self-defeating heavy-handed moralizing by ultraconservatives that’s brought us such chestnuts as “abstinence education” and “intelligent design”. They’re hoping that if they bury their heads in the sand and refuse to admit that it’s there, all that nasty porn will just go away. But with as many things as these ultraconservative folks would like to ignore, they’re going to need a hell of a lot more sand.

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