Regarding the .xxx domain

[Jim Gantenbein <gantenbein@xxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

In response to an email from me, John M. R. Kneuer, Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Communications and Information, encouraged me to express to you
any concerns I have regarding the .xxx domain.

There are grave concerns. History recognizes that trying to deal with a
problem by giving it official recognition and a ³safe² place, theoretically
away from those it might harm, stems from wishful thinking and results in
greater harm. A part of my job has been to try to help people who admit to
having a problem with pornography and everyone who comes to me confesses to
an addiction to internet porn. Most of those are teenagers. My experience
with them gives me absolute confidence that you will fail in isolating or
even decreasing the problem by trying to gather it and control it with the
.xxx domain. Not only is there always a way around it, they are the first to
find it and they spread the knowledge.

May I give you an example? A young man shared with me that he had become
hooked on porn over the internet. His parents put blocks on the computers
and used the safety measures available on the servers. He said it never took
more than a minute or two to by-pass that because the goal was porn, which
is visual, and it is world-wide. He said I could find it myself very easily.
He was right. I was using a ³safe² provider (Integrity On Line) and had all
the filters going at maximum protection. It worked on school computers and
library computers, too. For instance, for the address I entered ³xes² (sex
backwards) and .ru (for Russia). Try it and see where it takes you. Can you
guarantee that .xxx will get rid of all the porn sites from other countries
that continue to pop up? The teens don¹t care if it¹s in Russian, German,
English, or some language they¹ve never heard of. They¹re not reading it and
they have no trouble navigating through it. Their addiction is to the
pictures and videos.

Another way they by-pass parental attempts to stop it on the home computer
is to download and ³hide² other browser programs on the family or personal
computer. When alone, they just open one up and use it. They are very
efficient at hiding their tracks and are not worried about the .xxx domain
making it harder. It will just make it easier.

Please, don¹t legalize immoral and destructive web content.

Sincerely,
Jim Gantenbein, husband, father, pastor

-- 
Jim Gantenbein
Pastor
Kitsap Lake Baptist Church
5910 Wilmont St
Bremerton WA 98312
360.373.7728
pastorjim.klbc@xxxxxxxxxxx
gantenbein@xxxxxxx


--------------------------------
Dear Concerned Citizen:

Thank you for sharing your views with the Department of Commerce regarding
the proposed .xxx domain.

The Administration is concerned about the proliferation of pornography on
the Internet and the victimization of children.  It is the policy and the
track record of this Administration to protect children, to provide a safe
place for children online, and to combat child pornography.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the
organization responsible for the process of creating top-level domains.
Your input is a valued part of the process, and we encourage you to submit
to ICANN any concerns you have regarding the .xxx domain as follows:

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, California 90292
Phone:  310-823-9358
Fax:  310-823-8649
Email: xxx-icm-agreement@xxxxxxxxx

Sincerely,

John M. R. Kneuer
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information