No to .xxx

[John Foulds <john.foulds@xxxxxxx>]

Sirs

I oppose the proposed xxx TLD for several reasons:

1. Too few parents use available filtering tools for an adult-specific
TLD to be an effective way of isolating minors from adult content. On
the contrary, such a TLD will make it easier for minors seeking such
content to find it.

2. Knowing that the majority of surfers (usually correctly) assume
adult sites are on .com domains, most adult site operators will not
move off .com domains unless forced to do so and the .com TLD will
remain their first choice so long as it is available. This reality
will further undermine the declared intention of the new TLD.

3. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the people who have
applied to administer this TLD have anything but commercial motives
behind their application. The record of those involved does not
suggest that they have the slightest interest in protecting minors and
ICANN should not allow its credibility to be damaged by being
manipulated for the sole purpose of the financial gain of a few
individuals.

4. ICANN should not assume that because relatively few adult
webmasters have expressed opposition to this TLD, the majority see it
as a positive step towards excluding minors from their sites. Online
adult entertainment is an immature industry and as such it is still
dominated by people looking for quick, easy profit and that is what
the proposed TLD represents to them. Many others are silent simply
because, as in any group of people, the majority cannot be bothered to
express their opinion. The fact remains that on every industry forum
when this issue has been discussed, only a tiny minority have
supported the proposal.

Sincerely,
John Foulds