On Tuesday of this week, more than 100,000 websites went live with the new .xxx domain. As reported by CNN, the suffix was approved as a “top level domain” address last year by ICANN, the international not-for-profit that coordinates Web addresses.
Advocates for the new domain have suggested that creating the .xxx domain will help to better protect children and any unsuspecting Internet viewer from stumbling onto pornographic content by creating a space specifically allocated for pornography alone. Unfortunately, this pro-.xxx talking point is misleading.
While the .xxx domain does create a new space for hard-core content to live, there is no indication (or incentive) that the millions of porn sites that already sit in the .com domain space will ever move to the .xxx space. And while there are some pornography sites that do use measures to protect their content from unsuspecting Internet users and children, there are many, many sites that use popular teen icons, misspelled words, misleading advertisements, and mistyped url names to snag unsuspecting viewers in their addictive web of graphic content. These pornographers will most definitely keep playing their tricks in the .com domain space to lure the next generation to use their product.
Creating the .xxx domain will likely only increase the amount of porn available online and encourage pornographers to duplicate their existing .com site content in the .xxx domain space. As if porn wasn’t already easy enough to find, curious kids (and adults struggling with addiction to Internet pornography) will now have a new area of explicit sites to explore.
Parents: You should be aware that your kids are curious about sex, and chances are, they are going to go online to do some “research”, whether by viewing explicit .com content, or by visiting explicit .xxx content. It’s imperative that you use a strong filter (like either our X3watchPRO or Safe Eyes Parental Controls) to keep your kids away from these explicit sites and have regular conversations with your kids about healthy sexuality. If you discover your child is trying to access pornographic content, don’t shy away from confronting the issue directly. Chances are, if they’ve ever seen pornography online, that your kids know a lot more than you would like them to, and it’s your responsibility to do your part to educate them about the harms of pornography.