XXX Approved, Internet Gets Its Red Light District

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved the dot-XXX web domain - making the internet's red light district a reality.

Dot-XXX passed by a vote of nine approving board members to the three who abstained. Thus ends a long five year journey for the domain, which was once turned down. It will have a June 20 launch date the organization said.

It started a number of years ago, the applicant went through our various processes and we initially turned them down. The applicant went through the appeals process and this time they succeeded. So yes, we've been considering this for some time, ICANN chairman Peter Dengate said in a video interview.

By approving dot-XXX on the list of generic top-level Internet domain (TLD) names, ICANN said it is hoping it can regulate the highly unregulated porn industry. The move was not without controversy. The domain was not recommended by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Council, which along with other critics says the .XXX domain will be an easy target for government censorship.

However, Dengate said it is his understanding that the U.S. does not actually have a position inside or outside the Governmental Advisory either for or against .xxx. The company which registered for the domain, ICM Registry said it already has had 200,000 requests for domain names.

For the first time, there will be a clearly defined Web address for adult entertainment, out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or malicious computer viruses, ICM Registry chief executive Stuart Lawley said in a statement.