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XXX Web Domains Go Public – As TalkTalk Filter Fail Leaves HomeSafe Unsafe

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XXX web domains have gone live – and no we’re not talking about websites that support the clean-living straight edge lifestyle symbolised by a trio of Xs. This is a different kind of hardcore..

The ICM Registry has now decreed that adult business websites can have their own sector of the internet, akin to an online red light district. The decision was passed earlier this year and up until now only industry ‘insiders’ have been able to book themselves an exclusive suffix to promote and catagorise their unique brand of entertainment. From Tuesday 6th December it’ll be possible to set up shop for yourself and buy a .XXX domain for your own business – replacing the familiar dotcoms and making the internet a cleaner place for young and sensitive surfers.

CEO of ICM, Stuart Lawley addresses how hooking up the .XXX domains in their own sector will help identify the seedier side of the web and promise greater safety from browsers: “The new .XXX domain functions as a responsible alternative for sites that offer adult entertainment content and related services. All .XXX sites are appropriately labeled and McAfee Malware scanned. This means Internet users have a clear indication in advance of a site’s content and can surf the Internet with more confidence.”

Over 100,000 businesses and individuals have pre-registered to be guarantee themselves a smutty suffix which go live today.

TalkTalk Filter Fail

In other X-rated web news comes this extreme Fail by telecommunications co. TalkTalk.

The subsidiary group of The Carphone Warehouse, which delivers broadband internet to 4.1-million UK customers, recently promised to continue its purge of malware, scams and pornographic websites by blocking and filtering access to smut sites from its subscriber’s browsers by employing a feature called ‘HomeSafe’.

In just one week, TalkTalk’s ‘HomeSafe’ has been reported as unsafe and through a flaw in the way the software is updated allows certain websites to slip through the inadequate defences. When recently tested some questionable sites were still accessable – even when the ‘HomeSafe’ was active. Where a full screen block was supposed to appear preventing web-users viewing any of the site, the warning was reduced to a small box in the corner of the site, effectively leaving the whole thing exposed and up for browsing!

TalkTalk was left tongue-tied but managed to address the situation by saying: “As the only network-level filter, TalkTalk’s HomeSafe is the most effective way of protecting children from content parents consider harmful. While no technical solution alone is able to solve the issue of child internet safety or be a substitute for parental supervision, we firmly believe that HomeSafe is a step in the right direction.”

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