YNOT – After a two-day meeting in late November, the policy council of the International Foundation for Online Responsibility resolved to take steps addressing three issues facing dot-xxx domain owners and their consumers: piracy, filtering and images of child sexual abuse.
The meeting, hosted in Washington DC where IFFOR is headquartered, resulted in the formation of two working groups — one to tackle content piracy and another to tackle filtering — and a number of measures the organization will implement to prevent child sexual abuse within the dot-xxx space.
Piracy
IFFOR’s piracy working group will review the current situation and develop technological and legal-recourse means to combat the problem. The group hopes to find a solution that can work across the entire dot-xxx registry. Trieu Hoang, the vice president of business development and general counsel for adult studio AbbyWinters will chair the group.
“We look forward to working with the industry and ICM Registry to analyze the various anti-piracy solutions out there and to bring the best to dot-xxx owners,” he said. “We can’t stop piracy, but we can make it harder for people to make money from it. Part of that effort will be through new technology and part through the education of financial institutions and other groups not aware of how they incentivize the theft of content.”
Filtering
IFFOR’s position on filtering is that the decision to restrict access to legal content should be made by the individual. In keeping with that view, the organization already has implemented automatic labeling of all dot-xxx domains, thereby enabling individuals and other entities to restrict adult websites at the browser level.
The filtering working group will review the state of global filtering laws, regulations and plans with a view to educating legislators and others about the advantages and effectiveness of user-defined filtering as opposed to mandated filtering or blocking at the ISP or router level. Jerry Barnett, managing director of Strictly Broadband and chairman of the UK’s Adult Industry Trade Association, will chair the group.
“Content filtering is a worrying first step into internet censorship and can easily be used to block any kind of content, reducing free access to information on the internet,” he said. “That’s why I volunteered to head-up the IFFOR filtering working group. We will monitor these efforts and communicate effective alternatives.”
Child sexual abuse
IFFOR will join the global fight against child abuse images and work with third parties to recommend simple reporting, promote tools to combat the problem, and educate policymakers and other groups to ensure a consistent and effective approach. Sharon Girling, whose experience encompasses 30 years in law enforcement with a special emphasis in online child protection, will chair the child abuse working group.
“I am delighted with the development of IFFOR and the progress made by the policy council at our first meeting,” she said. “The council adopted baseline policies which clearly prohibit any child abuse content or indicative material, including in domain names. In addition, IFFOR’s decision to ensure that all dot-xxx websites and any site to which they link are labeled as containing adult content by MetaCert creates a safe area on the internet for children and families. Council members have taken a real step forwards in child protection through these and other policies.”
IFFOR Chairman Clyde Beattie said he was pleased with the tone and direction of the policy council’s first meeting.
“This is precisely what IFFOR was set up to do: review problems and find real-world solutions,” he said. “I’m delighted that the policy council was able to agree upon these important issues at its first meeting.
“IFFOR can stand up for issues that are important to global internet users and dot-xxx registrants and which fit with our core goals,” he continued. “Child advocacy, piracy and filtering fit that role neatly, and I look forward to seeing the policy council make progress on all of them.”
IFFOR’s nine-person policy council oversees four “stakeholder groups”: child advocacy, represented by Girling; free expression, represented by Nadine Strossen; privacy and security, represented by Fred Cate; sponsored community, represented by Jerry Barnett, Chad Belville, Trieu, Andy Kayton and Florian Sitta. Attorney Bob Corn-Revere, ICM’s representative on the council, is independent of the groups.
As the non-profit organization tasked with policymaking for dot-xxx, IFFOR is funded by a $10-per-registered-domain contribution from registrar ICM Registry. ICM Chief Executive Officer Stuart Lawley has said the $10 fee is incorporated in the $60 (wholesale) annual registration price of each dot-xxx domain.
