What you are trying to do is impose your values on other
people, pure and simple. That is far more obscene than anything your children might
find in the .sex domain--if it is properly used, which I doubt it would be (see my
message "Censorship"--I do not wish to spam the board by reprinting it here). You
have no right to expect the rest of the world to help you tailor what your children
see. First of all, your children are people too. If they wish to view erotic material,
that is their right. (Communication requires two parties, and both have rights in
the matter.) Second of all, do you really believe that everyone else will agree with
your judgment of what should and what should not be in the "red-light district"?
Even within the United States, values differ (see Reno v. ACLU, striking down the
Communications Decency Act); they differ even more when you take the entire globe
into consideration, as ICANN must. Do you want the butchers of Tiennenman Square
to determine what's good for children to see? Or would you prefer your neighborhood
fundamentalist Christian?
Furthermore, consider this: Censorware is not imposed
only on a familial basis. It's almost benign when it is, because young men and women
have friends and Peacefire.org to help them. But if ICANN forces a change to the
structure of the Internet, paternal and maternal authority will not be the only form
of authority to gain power: so will paternalistic government authority. Governments
will use the technical change to keep certain content out of entire countries. If
this does not concern you, remember this: Political speech wasn't the only international
communication whose penetration through the Iron Curtain helped tear it. And the
libidinous desire to party is, even now, helping free the oppressed people of the
Islamic Republic of Iran.
I cannot believe that authority, given the new tool for
censorship you propose, would refrain from using it to repress dissent as well as
sexuality. Censorware has been used to block political sites and news sites. This
tool will be used the same way.