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Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?

By | May 11, 2010, 8:06am PDT

Summary: There are many different arguments for and against a .xxx top-level domain. What do you think?

So here’s the question: should the Internet have a .xxx top-level domain for porn? It seems like a pretty straightforward question, but the sides are massing to do battle over it once again.

The BBC is reporting that pressure is intensifying on ICANN to allow the .xxx TLD to be made available. Back in 2005, the ICANN had initially planned to create a .xxx top-level domain, but under pressure from conservative groups, backed off.

But now, a domain registrar by the name of ICM Registry is pushing for .xxx once again. The company claims it spent millions on fees to move the process forward. Of course, if they get the registration rights for .xxx, they stand to mint money, so it’s probably a safe gamble.

But the question of .xxx isn’t so clear cut. At first, for example, it seems like a no-brainer to have a .xxx domain where all the porn companies can go to sell their smut. Many legitimate sex content companies may welcome a domain of their own, where it’s easy to apply content controls, and where they’re safe to let it all hang out.

But then there’s the issue of censorship. What if countries or regions decide to simply block the .xxx TLD? Wouldn’t that make the .xxx domains into something of a ghetto? On the other hand, part of the reason for a .xxx TLD is to make it easy to block, so people who don’t want that kind of thing can clearly keep it out.

Then there’s the issue of true dirtbags, those people who sell or purvey smut and don’t want to be restricted to the .xxx domain. Those people might hide their dirty sites amongst the more legitimate domains, effectively countering the benefit of the .xxx domain.

It’s weird. Some anti-porn conservatives and pro-porn free speech advocates are on the same side. The anti-porn conservatives don’t want anything having to do with porn, so they don’t want to allow a .xxx top-level domain. And the free speech advocates are concerned that anything that self-identifies as porn will be censored, so they also argue against the .xxx domain.

See also:
From 2004: The battle over triple ‘x’
From 2005: Bush administration objects to .xxx domains
From 2007: ICANN rejects .xxx domain registry

What do you think? Does the Internet need it’s PRON in the form of a .xxx domain? TalkBack below.

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RE: Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?
efsane Updated - 11th Apr 2011
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RE: Yes, I think .xxx should be made
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh Updated - 11th May 2010
and I think that all porn or adult only content should be forced to move to .xxx. It would make it easy to protect children by blocking .xxx extensions in filters, and prevent honest mistakes of children who are doing research, say like on the Government. So when trying to go to WhiteHouse.gov, they won't go to the whitehouse.com, known adult site.

Edit: by the way, china is already filtering based on content, not having .xxx doesn't stop them.
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@JM1981

Exactly.. At the very least Porn or "Adult Rated" Sites should have to register somehow so that they can be properly categorized. I work in education IT and one of my responsibilities is to manage the Web Content Filter and while it does a good job and it get's its filtering rules for URLs and Application signatures from one of the largest databases there are still many sites that come under the category of "none" that I always submit to the filter company for proper categorization and sometimes place a manual block on depending on the content. We had a parent threaten to sue the district about 2 years ago because her son came home with a picture of a naked women that he said he printed off a school computer. When I looked at the site where the picture came from by using the URL at the bottom of the page and running a report on that students internet history the page was a forum site where the picture was embedded into a forum reply post. I along with the lawyers had to say that we take every measure to block out the "bad" content but there are billions of web pages (probably) and sometimes some get over looked and we even had a statement from the web filtering company and the company that supplies the web categories stating these facts. We showed how we block certain categories and take a strong approach at blocking methods of using proxies to circumvent filtering. In the end the parent calmed down and finally placed the blame on her son where it should have gone in the first place.

On a side note I have been recommending the Free Live Essential Application called Family Safety and I have been getting nothing but positive feedback. I show people how to make or convert their children's user accounts as standard users and turn on the basic filtering. It seems to work well and the parents love it. Kids not so much.
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@bobiroc In the case of public school computers, it seems
it could be easier to restrict browsing to only approved
sites. If enough users request a site be added, you can
then take that information to the appropriate authorities
for inclusion. That may be easier than the blacklist, which
is never going to block them all.
Just an alternative.
ps. I'm a parent and grandparent...I routinely check out
where my kids wander, hehe!
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@wizard57m... We already do this. At least, we already do this in my district.
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@wizard57

Not as easy as it sounds. I get lots of resistance from some teachers and students that we cannot "censor" the internet. My boss and most of Administration is no help because if it were up to my boss he would let the internet be wide open. He sees no problem letting students who are minors use their facebook, email, and IM sites while at school. We rely on the website categories and for the most part that does a good job. I still get flack for blocking out categories such as blogs/forums and game sites and those along with a couple other categories are the ones we allow by request with a legitimate need only.
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Defined by who?
WarhavenSC 11th May 2010
@JM1981... Porn and adult content, as defined by who? As wizard57m already pointed out, smut is relative from culture to culture. In the states, anything non-educational that has tits in it is smut. In GB and France, not true. In Iran, it would be a woman showing anything except her hands and eyes.

"That ankle is so hot!"

So, you'd run into the exact same thing we have with gambling: Host your pr0n site in the country with least amount of restrictions. Furthermore, I can't imagine very many porn sites willfully limiting their target audience by restricting their content to the .xxx TLD. Besides, they'd lose all those conservative politicians that would otherwise be viewing their homoerotic smut during Senate meetings.
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@WarhavenSC: however, I do believe that on average people do not want their 8 year old children looking at even mild porn like playboy, nor can I imagine would they want their 15 year old to wander into Adult Friend Finder.

There will always be a grey area, but content that is specifically sexually explicit, and I think that there is an agreement on that is nothing more than strait up porn that should only be view of someone who is of legal age.

I don't think I would rate an oil canvas of a nude woman as being porn, and that is where the grey area comes in, and that is where at least content rating comes in.

I am not saying that it is an easy say, but their could be international input, the UN council perhaps... Get some agreement or standardization on how to determine what kind of content gets the .com or the .xxx.
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@JM1981

... but who decides which content should be considered "adult only" and at what age does everyone agree defines when one is "an adult"?

... oh, and once these definitions are universally agreed upon, how are you going to "force" one entity or another to adhere to the .XXX domain?
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@JM1981

I'm glad you brought up China. They don't have free speech, and I guess you wouldn't miss it here.

Forcing anyone into certain domains is censorship. Then we have to decide what is porn, and who should get to see it. After that, censoring other things will be easy. Maybe something you want to research will be blocked.

Just remember that you wanted it that way.

Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom.

FLAP Freedom Lovers Against Propaganda
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YES
Stan57 11th May 2010
Any other answer,is just people that will have there porn blocked at work,or kids that shouldn't be surfing for porn anyways. And its not just for kids,there are millions of adults that don't want porn just popping up randomly like it does now.
Why wouldn't we want to give parents every tool to protect there children. Having an xxx domain will not stop anyone from viewing the porn they want,and don't use well it will be easier tracked,everything you do NOW is tracked,so whats the difference? None
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@Stan57 When does porn just pop up randomly now? What kind of sites are you visiting or what are you searching for? I am curious where the problem is at because I have not run across a problem with this in many years. I looked at my google history, and I have 151 searches almost every day, i.e. I am a heavy Internet users doing a lot of searches and visiting a lot of sites on many different subjects. I can't even remember the last time I had an adult site randomly popping up. Google appears to me to do an excellent job of sorting adult sites out of the search results. Perhaps the problem is elsewhere, from a source that I do not frequent, such a sites that are typed in directly, chat or links from e-mail and forums?
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Who would decide what was porn?
wizard57m@... 11th May 2010
If it were decided to utilize the ".xxx" TLD, that would just
open another can of worms as to what measure would we
use to mark something as porn. What is acceptable to
one group is not acceptable to another. Who decides?
Yes, on "paper" it looks like a good idea, but implementing
it could be like herding cats.
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re: Who would decide...
Badgered 11th May 2010
@wizard57m@... while I get your point... and for some people it may be a hard question to answer. For me it's easy... if it would belong in the little back room at the local video store, it would get a XXX domain.
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Good Answer.
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 11th May 2010
@Badgered: Most porn site already rate their stuff XXX so why not.
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Some bookstores in America ...
mwagner@... 14th May 2010
... put Playboy in a back room. Some don't. Is nakedness porn or just picture of people having sex? As nudists pornographic? Is Michelangelo's David?

Gettign agreement on this subject, in America, let alone across cultures just isn't going to happen.
There is no need for the use of the TLD system. It's purpose (if there ever really was one) has gone awry. We should eliminate the TLDs and just have domain names. No need for .com, .edu, .gov, dot-this and dot-that.
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@sismoc

I disagree. In the U.S., where it was all invented, .COM, .EDU, .GOV, .ORG, and .MIL all mean something and though they are not used uniformly, it is helpful for the casual user to get an idea of what type of site it is.

That said, everywhere else, two-letter suffixes represent countries. These are less valuable because, for all intents and purposes, all sites are global - and because companies wanting an international audience use the standard prefixes no matter where their servers are actually located.

Still the basic suffixes remain helpful.
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RE: without the TLD
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh Updated - 11th May 2010
@sismoc... How would you know if you typed in WhiteHouse, if you are going to get the porn site or the office of the President?
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Without the TLD
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 11th May 2010
@sismoc How do you know if you are going to end up at the porn site or the office of the president if you just type in whitehouse?
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RE: Whitehouse
sismoc 11th May 2010
There would only be one whitehouse, it would belong to whoever registered it first, or to the owner of the trademark.
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@sismoc
DNS is a hierarchy of domains
(from main on the right to
subdomains to its left) so that it can easily have separate administrators for subdomains, and so that it can scale without the need for billions of entries in any one domain (although .COM is certainly huge). The TLDs are actually helpful sometimes; to get info on something with a little less advertising,
sometimes adding to a google query
site:gov OR site:edu
(assuming you're just looking for English-language content, and mainly US content) will cut the garbage out fast, esp. if you're looking for info on vitamins or supplements or the like.

Some places, the TLDs do mostly work (the US and UK, for instance). And getting rid of TLDs wouldn't make them that much friendlier to the end-user, because everyone has a slightly different idea of the easiest way to remember something (why you can type your own descriptive text on a bookmark usually) and because trademark laws allow very similar names anyway where there would be no overlap or confusion. DNS names were probably never meant to be super human friendly anyway, just that
www.google.com is better than 66.249.91.104.
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I disagree
JT82 11th May 2010
I dont think there should be a "universal" identifier for porn. Yes it allows for easy filtering that way, but we have filters in place today that will filter it out in the workplace, educational environment, and not allowing carte blanche ability to filter at a higher level with a simple denial of TLD. Plus this also reduces the .xxx TLD at nothing more than a red light district and could be construed as limiting free speech. If I have an adult website that I want to run a .com for, that should be my right - as long as the country allows the material and the proper warnings are in place.
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RE: RE: Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?
Richard B Updated - 11th May 2010
Because of deception or worst posting pornography in a public domain I would go for xxx TLD. Another thing it may force some art sites i know separate porn form non porn.
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How would an .xxx TLD stop deception?
wizard57m@... 11th May 2010
@Richard B How would having another top level domain
preclude the deception, or the public posting, of porn?
If the purveyors of this stuff already practice deception,
what would entice them to use the .xxx TLD?
As for "art", again, what is pornographic? What is for
educational use ( anatomy )? As I mentioned, the idea
looks good on paper, but there is no "universally accepted"
standard "porn" definition. Why shucks, we'd probably
get 12 different viewpoints from 12 people right here on
ZDNet! Look back at the ruckus raised when Apple
decided to clean out the App Store!
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Yes
davebarnes 11th May 2010
Make it easier to find.
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Many sites featuring photographs of naked women are legitimate businesses which publish magazines featuring these works of art. (It's all in the eye of the beholder.)

These folks are not going to want to be associated with the .XXX domain - and many, if not most, 'pornographers' would much rather be associated with the companies mentioned above than with 'pornography'.

And considering that the viewers of such material are going to partake to their hearts content no matter what, it really doesn't matter whether ICANN creates an .XXX domain or not. In the end, I doubt that many will use the .XXX domain.

Further ...

For decades, the Supreme Court of the United States has found itself unable to tell the difference between 'pornography' (which is legal under the U.S. Constitution) and obscenity (which is NOT legal under the U.S. Constitution).

Whether the laws of other nations 'permit' this material to exist on their soil or not, this material has been available everywhere as long as humans have been depicting human behavior by artificial means - and no amount of policing will stop it.

What we are left with is an exceedingly large body of work, most of which is somewhat distateful to someone, somewhere, despite the fact that the vast majority of human beings take part in some portion of the activities depicted.
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Use a whitelist for local restrictions.

The Internet would be better if all banks had common TLD, and only banks could use it.
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Use and keep updated a white-list for local restriction.

A better idea would be to give banks a unique TLD and enforce it to be used by registered banks only,
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RE: Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?
Loverock Davidson 11th May 2010
No because no one would use it. Porn industry wants to feed of the .com domains and people who just type a word into the address bar which automatically throws on the .com extension. Look at some of the other TLD's, .biz and .tv get rarely used. Besides, you are going to have a million people fighting for se.xxx and every variant there of.
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Just do it
BoloMKXXVIII 11th May 2010
Why not make XXX a TLD? Those companies who want to use it can do so. You are not going to get all smut vendors to use it. Does anyone know why they are saving the XXX TLD? Who else would use it?
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RE: Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?
Hallowed are the Ori 11th May 2010
Nooooo!!!!

I already have my favorite porn sites bookmarked, and I'd hate to have to modify that many bookmarks for a new TLD.

Ba-doom-boom!!!
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Habatchii Says:

The world is open on debate yet logic and finance creates a very large disproportion. Yes, the adult industry deserves its own share of internet and e-commerce. But should lawmakers establish new rulesets for both the big and the smaller hosts?

The adult industry has always had its share of media, from launching its own cable stations in the seventies, is own satellite channels in the eighties and now its own industry-wide bailout plans. But to mint a new denomination of TLD's exclusively for leisure sciences is a gamble more than an impossibility. Its like gays in the military; 'don't ask, don't tell...'.

Speaking of military, the .MIL and its affiliated TDL's have passed a plethora of certifications, yet only military parties and officers typically use it. Perhaps this is a small token to follow in preempting market shares and licensing issues for the new denomination. The alcohol, firearms and tobacco industries (.ATF?) use certifications to screen its sellers; so do beautician suppliers, cosmetics and even automobile dealers.

The biggest obstacle to overcome is the 'sitting duck' scenario in which end user consumers are corralled into one of these domains looking for leisure products. The only thing consumers should be exposed to at an .xxx site is a formal legal-ease environment; you wouldn't see strategic plans at a military site?

The key to the .XXX success is in the ruleset. Studios, technicians, actors/actresses, publishers, lawyers, educators and site-franchise administrators typically define this ruleset and its code enforcement of strict conformity to law.

Conclusion; yes the industry should be allowed to have its own top-level domain, yet the legality of exposing content to the general public should remain in the other TLD's immunity.

Good Luck;
Wobba Wobba, Muhha!
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Porn Has To Be Primently Deleted
JohnMikhael 11th May 2010
In UAE They do understand more that porn and sex are from devil

they have be Perimently deleted from the internet

No Matter if adult or child
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@JohnMikhael

Now that is a bit extreme. I believe it is the parent or guardian's decision to decide on what their family and children can look at on their private home internet. Public institutions can also decide since it is their network and computers and not the end user's. You may not like porn but it is not evil and some do not believe in things like god and the devil. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs on what is right and wrong but if a person or a parent or organization decides they want to block it for whatever reason I am all for making it easier to understand and accomplish.
JohnMikhael is expressing a religious opinion about making pr0n unavailable on the Internet, which is so freely available to so many. Any clear thinking Westerner who is paying attention realizes that there are religious extremists of some religions who believe that mass destruction is the best way to achieve their objectives...such as eliminating pr0n from the Internet.

Whether Westerners like it or not, and no matter how much Westerners may beat their chest like apes or howl like wolves about rights...dead people have no rights.

Therefore, I think it prudent to pay attention to the objections of those with more conservative views and aim for an expression of "speech" and "art" on the Internet that is acceptable to the majority.

The alternative could be an Internet that is no longer free. I. for one, would not like that.
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RE: Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?
Hallowed are the Ori 11th May 2010
@JohnMikhael

"Primently"???

"Perimently"???
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Yes!
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Yes, by all means. Too many websites are disquised as legitamit while being porn
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@ronleblanc@...

Is Playboy or Penthouse "legimate" or "porn"? Both are legal businesses under US Law. Shouldn't they deserve to use the COM TLD? How about "Hustler" magazine? Some people would draw a distinction - others would not.

What is lawful is not necessarily what is tasteful and what is tasteful varies by time and place as well as from person to person.

Some people are offended by nudity some are not. When is nudity porn and when is it not? Or is 'porn' more than just nudity. Who decides all this?
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I wonder what is more damaging to children (or society) - porn or propaganda? Should we set up a PPG TLD for propaganda sites? Maybe that way the dirtbags who masquerade their propaganda as legitimate news or "o-pedia's" can be herded together. That way school children wouldn't run the risk of mistaking politically twisted info-babble for legitimate knowledge?
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yes!!!
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I think XXX would thrive provided that having a XXX
TLD would give you a degree of legal cover. Having a
XXX would make it easier for organizations to limit access
for their employees (like the SEC) who should be working
instead of, well, not working...

It would also aid in parents who want to restrict their
child's access to such material.
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this is all just so much mental mastur... Wel, you know.
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I don't know....
scott@... 11th May 2010
What is going to stop things like walmart.xxx or mcdonalds.xxx or whateverreligion.xxx? Just sounds like another domain that every business will have to buy to protect their name.
I believe this to be a great idea however a few more measures most be adopted with this in order to work as intended. First all companies who are in the pornography business be required to requester an .XXX domain. For those who do not, they would be severely penalized and their content restricted form the internet.

I despise a "big government" totalitarian system however that is what actually exits in such "democracies" as U.S., U.K., China, Canada and a few other countries yet this content is more readily available today without restriction then it was in any time in human history. Thus sandboxing this content will not alter the reality of those societies. Children must obey their parents however they do have the right to be allowed to be children and grow up without the sociological and moral corruption porn has been shown to cause. A pre-puberty (puberatum) body and a pre-adolescence (adolescere) mind is not prepared to properly comprehend nor the body meant to engage in what these images depict, represent and signify. Lets protect our children and allow them to be just that.
I believe this to be a great idea however a few more measures most be adopted with this in order to work as intended. First all companies who are in the pornography business be required to requester an .XXX domain. For those who do not, they would be severely penalized and their content restricted form the internet.

I despise a "big government" totalitarian system however that is what actually exits in such "democracies" as U.S., U.K., China, Canada and a few other countries yet this content is more readily available today without restriction then it was in any time in human history. Thus sandboxing this content will not alter the reality of those societies. Children must obey their parents however they do have the right to be allowed to be children and grow up without the sociological and moral corruption porn has been shown to cause. A pre-puberty (puberatum) body and a pre-adolescence (adolescere) mind is not prepared to properly comprehend nor the body meant to engage in what these images depict, represent and signify. Lets protect our children and allow them to be just that.
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Pointless
Michael Kelly 11th May 2010
It's unenforceable, it's not clearly defined, and it only masks the problem.
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While we're about it ...
aja@... 11th May 2010
Why not have a .LTD and a .PLC, restricted of course to the businesses that are registered as such, rather than have the massive overload of .COM we have now. Why not? We have other industry specific TLDs: .AERO, .COOP, .MUSEUM, .TEL, .TRAVEL
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Not sure why people think the internet is FREE, it is not! It relies on billions of dollars of equipment and transmission medias to get to the home. Each site cost $ to put up. Each forum cost $ to support. If it comes down to it, those who foot the bills could turn it off at the sources (i.e. servers, switches, transmission lines, etc...). Since the internet is hosted in different countries, the paths in and out those countries can and are restricted by content (i.e. China and others). The First Amendment does not apply to the world for free speech and since the internet is world wide, this concept is inapplicable.
Having a .xxx domain would solve a lot of problems.
It would ID the type of domain the content has and help belief perspectives across the world. In a world community we are, we need to respect others as we also desire respect from others.
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RE: Should the Internet have a .XXX TLD for porn?
efsane Updated - 11th Apr 2011
Great! !! thanks for sharing this information to us!
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  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

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ie8 fix