Back in 2007, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers rejected the idea of creating a .xxx suffix for porn web sites. Today, ICANN overturned their own decision and is now seriously considering adding the suffix to the list of existing ones like .com and .org.

If ICANN ultimately approves the .xxx suffix, we could begin seeing it attached to flesh-friendly sites as soon as six months from now.

Porn sites wouldn’t be required to use the .xxx, but proponents point out that it would be an easy way for filtering software to identify sites that minors should not, by law, be viewing.

Explains the CEO of ICM Registry, the company that has been pressing for the suffix:

It will promote more labeled content… People who want to find it know where it is, and people who don’t see it or want to keep it away from their kids can use mechanisms to do so.

But since it’s not mandatory, there are those who say a .xxx suffix will do little to curb the viewing of online naughtiness because most x-rated sites will just keep their current .com URLs.

Of course, ICM stands to make a pretty profit from their sponsorship of the .xxx suffix. ICM plans to sell .xxx URLs for $60 each and claims to have 110,000 sites queued up and ready to join. Just to show it’s not all about the money, ICM says they’ll donate $10 from each sale to “child protection initiatives”… through a non-profit the company’s CEO has set up.

But the question is — unless you’re going to require x-rated sites to use the .xxx suffix, what’s the point? Porn-hungry Consumerist readers: Would you be more or less apt to check out a site with a .xxx suffix?

Porn sites closer to .xxx Web address [AP]

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