Update: The XXX top level domain (TLD) has been officially by ICANN on March 18th, 2011.

The International Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN in short, has given the initial approval for the creation of a top-level .xxx domain dedicated to pornography. A domain for pornography has been in demand from various quarters for quite some time, so that filtering them can be done effectively.

Before giving the final approval, ICANN will talk with the ICM Registry, one of the chief proponent for the xxx domain, to ensure that this move has the backing of the adult industry. This however is not likely to be a problem as ICM has said that there are already 110,000 pre-reservation for the xxx domain.

If everything goes as well, it is expected that the xxx domain will go live in early 2011.

The very fact that there is now a domain dedicated to pornography might be actually the main reason for it getting into problems. While filtering the domain at home to keep away minors will be easier with the new domain, it can also result in governments blocking the entire .xxx top level domain from the entire country. If it comes to that, you can be sure that the backing of the adult industry  for this top level domain will vanish very quickly.

[source: BBC]