MUMBAI: In a major change for so-called "adult" web sites, the global Internet's primary oversight body has announced a plan to create a new web suffix for pornographic web sites. The addresses, ending in .xxx, may be available as early August 2005.

.xxx is a top level domain, which will be the red right house on the Internet for sexually explicit sites. The name is inspired by the former Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) "X" rating, now commonly applied to pornographic movies as "XXX".

The traditional domains they use such as .com, .org and .co.uk will be replaced with .xxx

In the wake of this news, the America's Family Research Council (FRC) senior legal counsel and former chief of the US Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section Patrick Trueman said that even if pornographers will go to the .xxx domain, they won't leave the '.com' domain.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced a plan to create a ".xxx" domain address to house pornographic websites.

Trueman released the following statement expressing strong opposition to ICANN's plan:

"The new domain would do more harm than good. The '.com' domain has been a cash cow for the porn industry and pornographers will not give it up and remove themselves to the .xxx domain. Instead, they will populate the .xxx domain and perhaps double the number of porn sites available on the Web."

"The xxx domain also cloaks the porn industry with legitimacy. The industry will have a place at the table in developing and maintaining their new property."

"Creating a virtual red light district may also discourage law enforcement from bringing obscenity cases on the notion that the problem is solved."

Giving reasoning behind the xxx domain name for porn sites, a spokesperson of ICANN was quoted in a media report as saying, "This will help protect children from exposure to online pornography and also have a positive impact on online adult entertainment through voluntary efforts of the industry."

The report further added that the .xxx domains would be sold for about £40, which is up to 10 times more than the cost of other dotcom names.