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Monday, Mar 20, 2006
US Senators Propose 'XXX' Domain for Porn Websites

Two US senators proposed legislation that would establish a new ".XXX" domain for racy or sexually explicit websites.

.XXX
© AFP/Illustration

The bill proposed by senators Mark Pryor and Max Baucus, both Democrats, calls upon the US Department of Commerce to exclude sexually charged content from established website domain names such as .gov, .com, .org, .net, and .edu.

Baucus said at a press conference that the .XXX domain would help parents use filtering software to keep children from accessing pornographic sites, and would help prevent hapless Internet users from inadvertently stumbling onto sexually-explicit websites that they would prefer not to see.

"While the Internet is an exceptional learning tool, it allows children the same easy access to websites about space shuttles as it does for pornography," said Baucus, adding that violators would be subject to a hefty fine.

"This bill will section off a piece of the Internet neighborhood and confine adult sites to one location," the Montana senator said.

"It will give parents more tools to protect our kids. Parents should not have to worry about their children surfing into websites for adults -- either on purpose or by accident."

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