Newscoma

Yeah, I read it. I’m a perv.(Not the porn, freaks. That’s for Thursdays.)

But the bottom line is when you look beyond the XXX rating is that the Internet Oversight Committee is watching us. Doesn’t matter if you are a liberal, a conservative, a Christian, a pornographer or a goat with typing skills.

The Internet’s key oversight agency has revived a proposal it earlier rejected to create an online red-light district, after adding stronger provisions to prohibit child pornography and require labeling of Web sites with sexually explicit materials.

The use of the proposed ”.xxx” domain name would remain voluntary, but any porn sites that choose to use it instead of the more popular ”.com” would be subject to the new terms issued late Friday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The idea of a separate ”.xxx” domain has generated significant opposition from conservative groups and even some pornography Web sites.

You can self-tag it. Which means to me this is actually meaningless, but a political side-step. I can’t put my finger on it. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Porn sites would have to participate in a self-descriptive labeling system, likely one from the Internet Content Rating Association. Under it, Web sites add tags based on such criteria as the presence of nudity and whether it is in an artistic or educational context, such as for sites on breast feeding. Relatively few sites now participate, although major Web browsers have mechanisms for reading the tags.

ICM also would have to develop automated tools to check for compliance and give users ways to report violations.

I guess my question is “Where is this headed?” The whole article is interesting because it seems this is a bit of a mess and both sides sorta, and I use the words “sort of” very generically.

Weirdness.