Construction on Online Back Alley Halted

A video screen shows the live transcript of the discussions of ICANN's public forum Thursday, March 29 2007, in Lisbon, Portugal. Attention at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers meeting has been drawn to whether the implementation of a new ''.xxx'' domain name for pornographic and adult Web sites will be approved. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) (Armando Franca - AP)

ICM, which had planned to charge $60 per ".xxx" name, had vowed to fight any government effort to compel its use and cited preregistrations of more than 76,000 names as evidence of support.

"We are extremely disappointed by the board's action today," Lawley said. "It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board, ignores the rules ICANN itself adopted for (new domains) and makes a mockery of ICANN bylaws' prohibition of unjustifiable discriminatory treatment."

Religious groups worried that ".xxx" would legitimize and expand the number of adults sites, which more than a third of U.S. Internet users visit each month, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Focus on the Family lauded the decision, noting that from "the very beginning this idea held out false hope for parents concerned with filth on the Internet," said Daniel Weiss, a senior analyst for media and sexuality.

"It's a strange notion to suggest that we can help kids by sanctioning, endorsing and proliferating the very material that threatens them", he said.

But U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, chastised ICANN for not approving the domain name.

"These top-level domain names are the first signal to parents as to what their children are viewing online," she said. "For example, when we see '.gov' we know we are visiting a government agency, and '.edu' tells us an educational institution is about to appear. Yet, ICANN continues to turn its back on child protection by refusing to take similar steps to make harmful content as readily identifiable."

Given its voluntary nature, ".xxx" wasn't unlikely to have much effect on parents' ability to block porn sites. And because a domain name serves merely as an easy-to-remember moniker for a site's actual numeric Internet address, even if its use is required, a child could simply punch in the numeric address of any blocked ".xxx" name.

Lawley, however, said sites using ".xxx" would have been required to label themselves based on such criteria as the presence of nudity and whether it is in an artistic or educational context. Filters could check the labels even if a child were to try to bypass domain name-specific controls.

Nearly all of the board members opposing the domain cited concerns about content regulation, while supporters said ICANN should not block new domains over fears like that.

"I think that this _ what this should alert us to is that we have a much higher, bigger problem that we need to be discussing, and I hope that conversation doesn't end here," board member Joichi Ito said.

Lawley added that "the part of the contract they are now claiming would lead them to content management was put in by them during the contract negotiations."

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