Well not really but it’s kinda funny to see this on the Britanica blog:
Many people may not have heard of ICANN, the organization that oversees the Internet’s top-level domains (TLDs; e.g., .com, .net, .org, .edu, .us), but a decision that they reached will likely affect millions of Web surfers, making it easier for them to identify porn sites from…ummm…non-porn sites. At its conference in Brussels, ICANN’s board gave initial approval for the creation of the .xxx TLD. According to the ICM registry, which backed the bid, there are some 110,000 pre-reservations for the domain–and they expect the first sites to pop up sometime in 2011.
This is actually rather significant in one respect. I talked to a friend of mine from my old HiWired days concerning porn and virus’. He said that 19 times out of 20 the virus’ we found on people machines were caused by surfing for porn. Said virus’ were always more likely to be found on a machine that didn’t use a “reputable” porn site. It will be interesting to see if this kind of “Red Light District” for the net will make it less likely that people trolling for porn online will find a electronic venereal disease.
On a less serious note that really ages me why is it that this story being in the Britannica blog makes me think of a bunch of teens from a century ago sneaking peeks at native girls in National Geographic? Is there anyone alive using the net old enough to get the reference?
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