XXX Domains to Go Live December 6

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More than 100,000 domains in the .XXX top-level domain space have been registered, and will go live by 11 AM EST on December 6. Will this signal a change in how porn is accessed (and restricted) online?

The .XXX TLD has met with difficulties since it was first proposed in the 1990′s. While the benefits will include an easier way to filter out adult content, and an easier way for similar sites to be grouped together, the effort had been blocked by both conservative groups and members of the adult entertainment industry.

But the proponents of .XXX have prevailed, and the ICANN has approved the .XXX extension. Starting tomorrow, December 6, .XXX sites will go live. ICM Registry, which manages the entire .XXX namespace, says the new TLD will help adult sites become more easily searchable for those looking for porn, while these will be more easily blocked by users who want to explicitly filter out adult content.

ICM Registry CEO Stuart Lawley says web browsers, such as Firefox, will make it easier to filter out .XXX, and will give warnings when a user is about to access such content. He reasoned that the $4.9 billion worldwide porn industry is not going to remain a big part of the Internet, anyway — at about 12% of all websites to date. As such, maintaining an online red-light district will add a distinction between adult and non-adult sites. He reasons, though, that using .XXX is not mandatory, and adult sites are still likely to maintain their .COM .NET and other domains.

Porn is not going away anytime soon, but will .XXX live up to its promise to help improve access to those who want adult entertainment, and filter out adult content for everyone else?