SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR OUR APPLICATION
FACT SHEET
Proposal for a Voluntary Adult .XXX Top-Level Domain (TLD)
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be accepting applications for new sponsored top-level domains (sTLD) as part of its initiative to enable new top-level domains and inspire global innovation and competition online. ICM Registry will be submitting an application to become the operator of a new registry for the “.xxx” TLD. The sponsor of the new TLD is the Internationalal Foundation for Online Responsibility (iFOR), a Canadian non-profit entity that is totally independent from ICM.

The “.xxx” top-level domain will create a clearly identifiable area of the Internet that will both help protect children and families, as well as enable responsible adult-entertainment website operators to self-organize and self-regulate on a voluntary basis.
 WHY IS A VOLUNTARY .XXX TLD NEEDED?
  •  As one of the largest and fastest growing sectors of the Internet, the online adult-entertainment industry will benefit greatly from responsible self-regulation.
  • According to Reuters, online adult-oriented ecommerce is worth more than $3 billion USD globally and is growing at a double-digit rate. The number of adult websites has grown 18 fold over the last 6 years.
  • More than 10% of all online traffic and 25% of all global Internet searching is adult-content oriented with more than 100,000 adult webmasters worldwide and well over one million adult domains.
  • There is continued demand from child and family safety groups to ensure the Internet is safe.
  • Internet users are desirous of a system that provides the highest-possible levels of privacy and security.
 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A .XXX TLD?
  • Online child safety and anti-child pornography will be promoted through best practice guidelines promulgated by a non-profit cross-sector foundation. This foundation will provide assistance through various online support organizations and the sponsoring of technology tools and education programs for parents.
  • The online adult entertainment industry wants to create an identifiable space with which its members can elect to associate themselves and wherein they can responsibly self-organize and create guidelines to promote credible self-regulation.
  • The voluntary .xxx TLD will maximize and protect free speech – both for content providers and Internet users.
  • Privacy protection and security will be promoted for online consumers.
  • The .xxx TLD has potential to regularize business processes such as search-engine functionality, privacy, identity theft prevention measures, and security.
  • It creates a credible forum for representation and self-regulation where all stakeholders are able to discuss and actively respond to concerns about online pornography.
WHERE IS THE SUPPORT FOR A .XXX TLD?
The .xxx TLD is industry-led, market-driven and non-regulatory, and has drawn the support of a broad coalition of Internet stakeholders, including:
  • Child and family safety groups
  • Leaders/members of the global adult-entertainment industry have agreed to voluntarily participate
  • Free speech, privacy and security advocates
  • Information Technology (IT) experts
  • Public policy leaders
 WHO IS SUBMITTING THE .XXX TLD APPLICATION TO ICANN?
  • ICM Registry will operate the registry. ICM is a financially stable and completely independent entity with no affiliation, current or historic, with the adult-entertainment industry. ICM will operate the registry – providing management, supporting infrastructure and back-end functionality.
  • The International Foundation for Online Responsibility (iFOR) will sponsor .xxx. iFOR is a Canadian non-profit entity that will sponsor and serve as the policy-making authority for the .xxx TLD. iFOR is and will remain totally independent from ICM Registry, primarily funded by registration activities. It will have its own board of directors, representing the various stakeholders, including child-safety representatives, members of the free-speech community and adult entertainment industry leaders. iFOR’s mission is to contribute programs and tools to both make a difference in the ongoing battle against child pornography and to become a forum for the online adult-entertainment community to communicate and pro-actively be responsive to the needs and concerns of the broader Internet community. iFOR will engage in programs and activities, including: supporting free expression to allow Internet users rights to chose the online content they desire; promoting public awareness of technologies, programs, organizations and methods available to protect children online; enhancing development and proliferation of PICS labels and systems for labeling and identifying content; sponsoring approved child safety and child pornography reporting organizations; prohibiting deceptive or unfair business practices; normalizing online services for registrants to increase credibility and predictability; and enabling enhanced intellectual property law protections

WHAT WILL BE THE OBLIGATIONS OF .XXX TLD REGISTRANTS?
Participating Internet content and service providers believe that responsible self-regulation is essential to the industry’s continuing viability in the global marketplace. Internet content and service providers that voluntarily register the domain names will adhere to a high-level set of business practices, embodied in an enforceable contract between the Registrant and ICM Registry. The credibility of such practices cannot be preserved by the one time creation of a set of responsible business practices: iFOR must establish, revise and continually update these practices to accommodate developments in technologies and societal expectations.

.xxx domain name registrants will be expected to adhere to the following best business practices:
  • Safeguarding children from being marketed or targeted online;
  • Defending customer privacy;
  • Promoting accurate meta-tagging;
  • Ensuring clear and accurate disclosures, security of transactions and contact information;
  • Protecting intellectual property rights;
  • Combating the use of unlawful malicious codes and technologies, like spoofing;
  • Opposing fraudulent, anonymous and unsolicited bulk SPAM advertising pornography; and
  • Blocking domain names intended to attract child pornography consumers.
In addition, ICM and iFOR will make a difference in the battle against child pornography by sponsoring programs to safeguard children.