closed Mandatory Adult TLD

[smerby]

Senators Baucus and Pryor Author Bill to Create Mandatory Adult TLD
by Q. Boyer

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) introduced new legislation today that would serve to require websites that contain “material that is harmful to minors” to operate from a new Top-Level Domain. The senators suggest .xxx as an example of such a domain, and a press release on Pryor’s website makes it clear that this bill is targeting adult entertainment, despite the fact that the language of the bill would require sites that offer other forms of “harmful matter” to operate from the new TLD, as well.

The purpose of the new bill, which Baucus and Pryor have coined the “Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2006,” is stated as: “To faciliatate the protection of minors using the Internet from material that is harmful to minors, and for other purposes.”

The bill specifies that the new TLD should have “a domain name appropriate for its purpose,” and while the language of the bill does not specify that the new TLD has to be .xxx, the only example of such a domain name cited is .xxx.

“The new domain shall have a domain name that ends in a manner that allows a user of the Internet to understand that by accessing such domain, a user is likely to view material that is harmful to minors, such as domain name ending in .xxx,” it states in under the section “Requirements for New Domain.”

The press release on Pryor’s website is more explicit in its call to have the new TLD be .xxx.

“Senators Mark Pryor and Max Baucus (D-MT) today introduced legislation to require Web sites with adult content to have an .xxx domain that only adults can access,” the release states.

What the press release does not mention, but is clear in the language of the bill, is that materials other than pornography would be subject to the new legislation.

Under the “Definitions” section of the bill, quoted at length below, an expansive definition of “material that is harmful to minors” would clearly apply to a great deal of material not typically associated with, or labeled as, “adult content.”

Under Section 8, “Definitions” the bill states:

“The term ‘material that is harmful to minors’ means any communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing or other matter of any kind that is obscene, or that a reasonable person would find –

(A) taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest;
(B) depicts, describes or represents, in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors
(i) an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual conduct;
(ii) an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act; or
(iii) in a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent female breast; and
(C) taking the material as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”

The bill calls on ICANN to select an entity to “establish, operate and maintain” the new TLD, and includes some detail as to how the selection process should unfold, and provides for limitation of liabity for the operator of the TLD, as well as indeminification from being considered a “speaker” with regards to the material posted to individual sites on the new TLD by owners and operators of the individual.

Under Section 4, “Use of New Domain” the bill states that “Commencing not later than 6 months after the establishment of the new domain under section 2, any operator of a commercial Internet website or online service that has as its principal or primary business the making available of material that is harmful to minors shall register such website or online service with the new domain and operate such a website or service under the new domain.”

The bill does not specify what sort of penalties would be applicable for violators of the new TLD’s policies, but does identify the Secretary of Commerce as the responsible authority.

Under Section 6, “Enforcement”, the bill reads as follows:

“Any person who violates Section 4, or any requirement, registration criteria, or limitation applicable to a registrant to the new domain under section 2(b), shall be subject to such civil penalties as the Secretary of Commerce shall prescribe.”

The bill further states that “The Secretary of Commerce shall have the power to enforce the provisions of this title, including -
(1) any requirements or limitations applicable to a registrant to the new domain under section 2(b); and
(2) the imposition and collection of civil penalties under subsection (a).”

The Bill also provides for “periodic audits” to be conducted by the Secretary of Commerce to “ensure compliance”.

“Pryor said he believes a separate domain on the Internet for pornography will help parents filter their children’s access to inappropriate materials,” states the press release on Pryor’s website. “Pryor and Baucus’ legislation, the Cyber Safety for Kids Act, would require the Secretary of Commerce to negotiate with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to develop a special domain name for websites containing adult content. ICANN, an international Nongovernmental Organization, is charged with selecting domain names, such as .com, .org, .net., edu. and .gov. Under the legislation, companies that fail to register with the new domain within 6 months would be subject to civil penalties.”

“While the Internet is an exceptional learning tool, it allows children the same easy access to websites about space shuttles as it does for pornography. Turning a blind eye to this problem has allowed the online pornography industry to expand and enabled kids to view adult content at very young ages,” Pryor said. “By corralling pornography in its own domain, our bill provides parents with the ability to create a ‘do not enter zone’ for their kids.”


http://www.ynot.com/modules.php?op=...article&sid=10289&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

 

[B33R]

Give me a break!

I'd love to see them police that bs. They should be putting the resources where they really matter - child porn. When they get that under control, then they can consider a project of this magnitude.

I'm not for showing children adult material but how else are they supposed to understand sexuality and how real life is?
It's the parents job to teach their children about sex, it's the parents job to protect their kids from anything they find "objectionable" NOT webmasters on the internet.

What next? They wanna stop gamblers from accessing gambling sites? Christians from Islamic sites? How about blocking compulsive shoppers from Ebay?

What happened to free speech? What happened to parental responsibility?

Then after the internet is blocked to stop everything bad and everything that could be bad. Where then?

I've got an idea! Let's stop smokers from buying smokes in case a child walks past them when they're smoking them!
Here's an even better idea! If you can't bear the responsibility of looking after your kids then maybe you shouldn't have them.

A kid's gotta learn about the world somehow, you can't stop them from doing/seeing/hearing of anything "bad" for their entire lives.

http://www.ynot.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=news_article&sid=9663
This guy has it right - there should be a .kids domain specially for kids so you can get all your disney type sites on there. A lot easier than having every adult/violent/morally questionable thing move to their own TLD and a hell of a lot easier to implement and police.

And for the record, I find that war is a lot more damaging to kids than some porn. Letting your child think invading countries, killing innocent civilians and all that crap is less questionable and somehow more acceptable than some porn on the internet.

These fools need to get their priorities straight!

 

[RatherGood]

I'd love to see them police that bs.

Idiots in the adult community keep saying that over and over - I have no idea why.

All the US government has to do is force ICANN to come up with a process to seize control of any non-.XXX TLDs and ccTLDs that have adult content on them. This would be pretty simple and would be easily applicable to any domain whether the owner is inside the US or not.

The real joke is ICANN said they would approve .XXX on the basis it doesn't become mandatory.

 

[B33R]

I'm no "idiot in the adult community".

How much time is gonna be wasted stopping the worst offenders? eg. people who buy domains like xxx-123-this-nameisverylong.com just to spam. I just think their time (whoevers it is) would be better spent shutting down the illegal sites on the internet.

What about violent websites, chat sites, gambling, and all that other stuff - do they get their own TLD so it too can be blocked?

It is much simpler to have a .kids and rather than having to regulate/block the entire internet, they could just allow entry to .kids websites.
.kids addresses could then be sold to companies who have proven themselves as providing material suitable for kids. Companies like Disney or Yahoos Yahooligans.

Moving all adult domains to .xxx won't stop kids from viewing violent, gambling or other objectionable non adult related material.

 

[RatherGood]

I'm no "idiot in the adult community".

How much time is gonna be wasted stopping the worst offenders? eg. people who buy domains like xxx-123-this-nameisverylong.com just to spam. I just think their time (whoevers it is) would be better spent shutting down the illegal sites on the internet.

What about violent websites, chat sites, gambling, and all that other stuff - do they get their own TLD so it too can be blocked?

It is much simpler to have a .kids and rather than having to regulate/block the entire internet, they could just allow entry to .kids websites.
.kids addresses could then be sold to companies who have proven themselves as providing material suitable for kids. Companies like Disney or Yahoos Yahooligans.

Moving all adult domains to .xxx won't stop kids from viewing violent, gambling or other objectionable non adult related material.

There are enough religious nutjobs out there to hunt down adult domain names. ICANN could easily pass enforcement responsibility onto registrars as well. I'm sure GoDaddy would love to charge a large fee for processing this type of complaint.

Again, I have no idea why people think this isn't enforceable. I can think of a dozen different ways it can be done.


This has everything to do with control and censorship, nothing to do with protecting children. The bill will most likely die on the floor anyway but there will be many more like it to follow.

 

[Cashcows]

I am so tired of the Anti-Sex, Anti-Porn attitude in this country.

The only reason the internet is as advanced as it is today is BEACUSE OF PORN! What do you think drove all of the video streaming and live conferencing. Before that it was all just a bunch of tech nerds and scientists using it. And this is not speculation. I was in Beverly hills eating lunch on sunset strip one day and I over heard a meeting between the young guy and an older asian man that pulled up in a Chauffeur driven Rolls...He was talking about their video porject and the univerities and govt wanted to use it. He said it was all funded from their adult sites that used the technology and that is what made it possible. A lot of what we take for granted on the internet was advanced by the Adult industry.

The Reason VHS Killed Beta back in the 80's was because Sony would not license the porn companies to use beta, so VHS did and it killed beta which was a better format. If you get porn involved it will always lead the technology and fund the way for other uses.

The have tried to stop porn for as long as I can remember with that act )I can’t remember the name) and then President Clinton singles handedly saved the internet when he got the BJ from Monica. The Star report would not have been able to be published on the internet due to the law that was going to be passed, so they realized well maybe we have gone too far!

Yes there are a lot of idiots in the adult internet community, but they are rich and learning now, so maybe they were smarter than us after all. I watched as these people that knew nothing about business or marketing were making $500K a year! I built many of those sites and one thing I can say is the for the most part the people in the porn business (at least the ones that I have encountered) Are more honest straightforward and reliable than 95% of the people I have dealt with in so called legitimate businesses.

I use to build websites, and the mainstream people, were never happy, bitched, whined, bounced checks , stiffed me. My adult customers, Paid on time, checks NEVER bounced, the bought multiple sites. One time I had to people try to stiff me that were Getting into the adult business. And the 3rd partner that was in it already for years, came out and said that was wrong and sent the check right out and apologized.

My concern is will parking and PPC traffic be affected by this bill? As we are not showing any content? I do have affiliate sites as well, but I could move to a total PPC model if it passes.

Now on the other hand there is a problem with kids getting to porn. Most young girls have seen more DP by the time they have sex then you would imagine, and all of these teens these days are much more adventurous than I was at that age. I mean I hate to see some one lose their virginity in a threesome. I think you need to ease in to sex (I have written two books on sexual technique so I am pretty informed and open minded)

The problem is lack of parental control be we all know parents can't do everything. When I was a kid, it was harder to get porn, had to be 18 or have friend that was to go to the video store or news stand, or try that funny trick where you would try to get that encrypted porn channel tuned in....just when you go the picture right bam is was gone again...lol

It morons like this that is causing the problem
http://www.event.com
No warning nothing totally irresponsible, and ruining it for responsible people in the adult business.

PS: I also agree that I never understood why it's ok to watch killing all day long on TV, be brainwashed into sickness by Drug company commercials, and not ok to watch people enjoy sex. The world is assbackwards. Maybe it's population control, they want us killing instead of ****ing to thin out the heard. Such a joke!

 

[Toker]

You're only listing 1 of the bills in Congress.
The other oddball Senator from Arkansas Blanch Lincoln has a bill in Congress also to make everyone show proof of age to view even a Sample Gallery in a TGP.
If you want to laugh this is where the info for the facts behind the 2 bills came from and WHO dug them up..
Enjoy.
http://www.third-way.com/press/release/10
PS also read the links on the bottom under Associated products:
The management team of Third Way, and its sister organization, the Third Way Institute, is composed of political entrepreneurs who have served in senior positions in Congress and the Clinton Administration and also have extensive experience running successful national advocacy groups.

 

[Manowar]

I doubt one will go through under the bush administration