WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to the Washington Times, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said recently that he has a solution to the problem of children accessing adult entertainment on the internet: forcing explicit adult sites to use domain names specifically zoned for adult entertainment. Speaking at a summit sponsored by the American Decency Association, Concerned Women for America, Citizens for Community Values, Focus on the Family and other pro-censorship groups, Pence argued in favor of a dot porn extension of some kind to segregate porn from mainstream content.”The Supreme Court seems more enamored with protecting obscene speech than with protecting everyday citizens,” Pence said.
“There aught to be a standard of integrity of domain names.”
Pence is no stranger to legislation targeting the adult industry. In 2003, Pence sponsored the “Truth in Domain Name Act,” which set penalties for the use of misleading domain names in the publication of adult content online.
According to AVN Senior Editor Mark Kernes, who attended the summit, Pence had only a short time to speak and did not go into any specific analysis of the pros and cons of a dot porn domain name extension, other than to say that he was considering his support. Kernes told YNOT that Pence may have some reservations about such an extension since it could be seen by some as legitimizing adult content.
The adult industry itself has considered the possibility of supporting an adult-only domain name extension as a means for countering claims from pro-censorship groups that the industry purposefully targets children. A business group out of Canada has pushed for the creation of a “.XXX” domain name extension on a “managed” level, meaning .XXX domain names would have to be purchased from one company and the cost and requirements for obtaining a .XXX domain name would likely be more significant than those of open domain names, like .COM or .NET. Supporters of “.XXX” have argued that the extension would be voluntary, but detractors have countered that the government could try to force adult websites onto .XXX domain names if the extension were approved. The adult industry’s trade group, the Free Speech Coalition, previously declined to support the creation of “.XXX” domain names because of the potential for harm to the industry if all adult sites were forced into a virtual “red light district.”
Pence did not mention the .XXX domain name extension specifically in his speech at the forum, and there was no indication whether or not he was aware that efforts to create such a domain name currently exist. He also did not discuss the “.kids” alternative. Calls to Pence’s office were not returned in time for this story.
