Do Porn Sites Need .XXX Web Domain?

June 25, 2010— -- Internet porn sites may soon have the option to move off the ".com" main street of the Web to their very own adult-only domain: ".xxx." But industry experts say the adult world is divided over whether or not there is actually a need for a dedicated virtual red-light district.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international Internet oversight group, announced Friday that it would proceed with a proposal to register ".xxx," after rejecting the same application three years ago.

Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN's board of directors, told ABCNews.com that the board had previously rejected the .xxx proposal by ICM Registry, LLC because of disagreement over whether or not a community of adult content providers backed the proposal.

One of ICANN's application requirements is that a community sponsors each proposal, and he said, "There was doubt about the size and strength of the community. And the commitment to the process."

But after an outside panel reviewed ICANN's 2007 decision, its board ruled today to reverse its decision to block the .xxx suffix and proceed with the process.

Thrush said there are still several steps to complete before the .xxx domain is ready for use, but he added that if everything moves quickly, the process could be completed in six to eight months, though it could take longer.

Still, Stuart Lawley, president of ICM Registry, is confident that the .xxx domain will ultimately reach the Web.

"I think there is almost zero chance of this not happening," he said, adding that the volume of requests to reserve Web addresses "is going up by the minute."

He said that as of Thursday he'd taken about 110,000 reservations, and overnight received 2,000 more. By the time the registry launches, he said he expects the number of registrations to reach 500,000.

According to his research, there are about 5 or 6 million adult sites on the Internet and, if all goes well, he said he could potentially capture 2 to 3 million of them over time.