In the last few days, several press reports have been planted in Indian media stating that “Indian Government may oppose the introduction of .xxx domain names”. (Refer article “India to oppose .XXX domain for Porn sites” in Economic Times.
The Government of India has taken an anti pornography stand in legislating for Cyber Space under ITA 2008 and it is not considered possible for the Government to take a stand in opposing the current move. In fact the quotes given in the article itself only suggests that Government may block .xxx domain and does not state that the Government is opposing the move to introduce the new domain name. The twist to the headline gives a wrong impression about the stand of the Government.
It is clear that there are vested interests in India including the ISPs who want to proliferate pornography for their commercial gains. Schools and Corporates are finding it difficult to keep their networks free of pornography since it is difficult to isolate such content.
Now with the creation of the new domain name and under the assumption that ICANN will enforce the content segregation at their end, it becomes easy for filtering pornographic content through firewall configuration whether the Government takes action to block the .xxx domain in toto or not.
The article also states as if Cyber Law Experts also support the move to oppose introduction of .xxx domain names. This again is untenable since there may be experts who oppose provisions of ITA 2008 on pornography but there is no logic for experts to oppose the creation of .xxx domain names.
Naavi.org who was in the forefront of anti pornography measures and fought against sites such as savita babhi dot com had supported the move for creation of .xxx domain names way back in 2002 when it was first proposed. (ref: article: Cultural  Policing , Creating a Red Light Area in Cyber Space).
It may be recalled that  when Indian Government tried to block the yahoo group page of Mizoram  extremists the ISPs blocked the entire yahoo group for some time. ( Yahoo groups blocked by Dishnet). ISPs defended  their action in this regard stating difficulties in blocking a specific  URL.
Now therefore if ICANN wants to introduce dot XXX domain names, Indian  Government which has committed itself to an anti pornography law in  India should welcome the development since it can now block dotXXX  domains as a category.
Naavi.org strongly recommends creation of dot XXX domain names so that the  segregation of sites take place. In fact after the segregation, the  regulation becomes far more easier and effective.
I wish main line media should be fair to depicting the correct information of the public opinion rather than becoming pawns in the hands of vested interests to promote pornography. If Indian public are properly informed that the ICANN move is not a move to create new pornographic content on the web but to segregate the content so that it provides a freedom to the users to keep children away from such content, public will wholeheartedly support the move. Indian Government does not have a choice in the matter since ITA 2008 already has stringent provisions on distribution of obscene electronic information and the blocking of .xxx domains becomes a necessity.
Naavi of Naavi.org
3 users commented in " India Wecomes Creation of dot XXX domain names "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe introduction of “xxx” will have no effect on Adult Dotcom websites: they will remain unchanged. There is a possibility that some Adult content may be duplicated at “xxx”, so perhaps some people will get to see the same thing(s) twice.
Many will probaly avoid the “xxx” space and set any defensive “xxx” domains names as unresolvable. Still, speculative “xxx” domains could have for sales signs on them
All ICANN has managed to do is advance the case for fragmentation of the Web, whilst simultaneously persuading the public to find new ways of making the most of their surfing experience. The result is that Internet users can now bypass ICANN to create their own personalised range of previously unseen domains and TLDs, totally free.
Sites such as Dashworlds.com already provide brand new Dashcom (not Dotcom) domain names. Dashcoms are addresses in format “business-com”, “paris-fashion”, “social-network” and of course any “xxx” extension your heart might desire. Totally outside the realm and control of ICANN, Internet users can create any domain in any language, instantly and at no cost.
With users and members in over 90 countries worldwide, resolution is via an APP; although new ISP Links are available to make this unnecessary (ISP Links that are also available to ICANN).
Having just one Internet floating in infinite cyberspace is like saying you can go anywhere in the USA as long as you only use route 66. So now, just as in the USA (and everywhere else in the world) the Internet has more than one option.
The development of dashtld network is welcome.
Long time back similar effort was done under dotws domain. I am not sure why it did not take off.
The service of dashcom will work better with the service of http://www.lookalikes.in which was created only to meet the requirements arising out of such developments.
Naavi of naavi.org
The Block XXX Movement aims to help pass legislation allowing every person, organization, and school in the United States the option of opting out of internet pornography at the service provider level by utilizing the new .XXX Top Level Domain as outlined in the BlockXXX[dot]org Flowchart For Change. Our goal is to stop pornography before it can be accessed by our children or by those trying to break an addiction to pornography and to protect our families from unwanted and inadvertent exposure. It is estimated that 90% of 8-16 year olds have been exposed to pornography online, most while doing homework on the computer. This statistic is completely unacceptable and we must fight to protect our families by prompting our government to change. With the recent ICANN approval playing a key part in the process as outlined in the BlockXXX Flowchart, the time is now change the way internet pornography is regulated. Sign the petition and support the movement.
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