NEW YORK, NY — In a statement dated February 14th, Morality in Media, Inc. (MIM) president Robert Peters called on supporters of MIM to continue emailing comments to ICANN objecting to the establishment of a new .xxx TLD.“There are at least four problems with the proposed ‘XXX’ domain,” Peters wrote. “First, pornographers will not be required to use the domain. Second, tech-savvy kids will be able to circumvent the domain. Third, to some extent the ‘XXX’ domain will result in the ‘de facto’ legalization of obscenity.”
Lastly, Peters contends, the new TLD “will not protect society from hardcore pornography.”
“As the Supreme Court observed in a 1973 obscenity case… there are ‘legitimate governmental interests at stake in stemming the tide of obscene materials, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles,’” Peters wrote, adding that the governmental interests cited by the court include “maintaining ‘a decent society’ and protecting ‘public safety,’ ‘family life,’ ‘the quality of life,’ ‘the total community environment,’ and ‘morality.’”
Despite the fact that the “best practices,” by-laws and operating guidelines for sites on the proposed .xxx TLD have not been created, Peters argues that .xxx will doubtlessly allow for most extreme varieties of pornographic depictions, and webmasters will be prohibited only from distributing child pornography.
“(I)f ICANN has its way, users of the xxx domain will not be permitted to depict child pornography,” Peters concedes; he then follows by asserting that such users “will be permitted to depict (among other things) 18-year-old girls and boys being hogtied, whipped, shocked with electricity, gang raped, and tortured to death.”
Piling on further assumptions as to the details of the currently non-existent rules for .xxx sites, Peters asserts that depictions of “pseudo child porn, bestiality, excretory functions and matter, incest, prostitution, teenage gangbangs and unsafe sex galore will also be permitted in the new xxx domain.”
Peters does not detail his argument that .xxx would lead to a “de facto legalization of obscenity,” nor does he explain how the depictions he describes would be immune to prosecution under the existing obscenity laws of any number of countries, even assuming that said depictions are, in fact, permitted under the eventual rules of the .xxx TLD.
Peters concludes his statement with a call to action by MIM supporters: “Now is the time to let ICANN know what you think.”
For the full text of Peters’ statement, refer to the main page of the Morality in Media website at http://www.moralityinmedia.org/ and click the text link that reads “The idea of creating a XXX Internet domain for porn sites has been revived.”
