Do not create the .XXX domain

[Jessica McMillan <jessikalm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To whom it may concern:

Neither ICANN nor the company urging the establishment of this new domain are 
arguing that the .XXX domain would clean up the .COM domain and require all 
pornographers to move to .XXX. The .COM domain is a cash cow for pornographers 
and they are not leaving it. ICANN has no enforcement powers to make them leave 
and thus clean up .COM. Pornographers would simply expand to .XXX and maintain 
their current .COM sites, perhaps doubling the number of porn sites and 
doubling their menace to society. 
The .XXX domain will NOT make it easier to filter porn, even if all 
pornographers would voluntarily move there (and that will NOT happen). The 
problem with filtering is not that it is difficult but rather that too few 
parents care enough to employ filters for the home or laptop computers used by 
their children. Even if most parents did use filters on home computers, kids 
have access to the Internet outside the home. And it isn’t just the kids that 
need filtering. Addiction to pornography by adults is rampant so everyone needs 
filtering but, sadly, few bother. The new website Pornography Harms, 
http://pornharms.com
, provides overwhelming evidence of harm from pornography and thus the need for 
protection from it. 
Since most families do not use effective filtering services, the .XXX domain 
would merely make hardcore pornography even easier to find for children seeking 
such material. Thus the argument that .XXX would benefit children by “cleaning 
up the Internet” is without any basis in fact.  
U.S. citizens should not believe claims by some that the U.S. Congress could 
merely pass a law requiring all porn companies to leave the .Com for the .XXX. 
Any law attempting to force pornographers to relocate to .XXX would likely be 
declared unconstitutional because under the First Amendment, all pornography is 
“presumptively protected” by the U.S. Constitution until it has been determined 
to be “obscene” or “child pornography.” Just as the Department of Justice 
cannot force porn stores to move or go out of business because it believes that 
such stores are operating illegally, the Department cannot force pornographers 
on the .COM domain to move or go out of business without first charging them 
with a crime and having a court make a determination of illegality.  
Hardcore pornography (or “obscene material” as it is called in U.S. law) on the 
Internet is ALREADY a violation of U.S law. It is just not being prosecuted by 
the U.S. Department of Justice because those in charge are letting the public 
down. So for those who argue that by establishing a new .XXX domain AND then 
passing by a new law requiring porn companies to move (IF such a law was upheld 
after years of litigation) we can solve our Internet porn problem, we must ask 
why these two events will suddenly compel the Department to begin prosecuting 
porn companies. If the Department of Justice is not prosecuting Internet porn 
companies now for violating U.S. obscenity laws, it is not going to prosecute 
such companies for merely locating in the wrong address.  
If somehow all porn sites providing obscene material would actually leave the 
.COM Domain for the .XXX Domain, they would STILL be violating U.S. obscenity 
law which prohibits such material on the Internet regardless of location. We 
don’t want the Department of Justice to say to illegal porn companies, in 
effect, that it is okay to violate U.S. law as long as you do it on .XXX. Men, 
women, and children are becoming addicted to pornography and I believe the 
rates of addiction are skyrocketing – this is a virtually untreated pandemic. 
Many who begin by viewing adult pornography deviate down to harder and harder 
material as they continue a steady consumption of material and many of these 
will deviate down to the point that they only become excited by child 
pornography. This is a significant factor in the growth of child pornography on 
the Internet. Countless marriages are breaking up because of pornography use. 
Violence against women, which is depicted in most porn films, is changing male 
attitudes toward girls and women in a very negative way. A more appropriate 
goal should be to STOP the distribution of this destructive material by 
prosecuting those responsible for it, NOT protect pornography on the .XXX 
domain. 


Thank you,
The McMillan Family