The .xxx domain isn't a bad idea. It will make filtering easier. The legit pr0n vendors will be in a place where the consenting can find them. The illegitimate can have their domain names yanked as they pop up.
The ICANN .xxx proposals are to create .xxx, not to make it mandatory. It won't help filter anything. There's already a standard for labeling inappropriate content, led by the ICRA/RSACi. It works on a per-page basis, not per-domain like mandatory .xxx would. Web filtering software already pays attention to it. If a porn site doesn't care enough to use voluntary filtering now, or doesn't consider itself porn, it won't voluntarily switch to .xxx to help filtering software do its job.
Making .xxx mandatory would probably be unconstitutional, and ICANN would never do that without prodding from the U.S. government. It's not feasible, anyway. Domain name conflicts, problems defining "porn," and a host of other insurmountable obstacles stand in the way of a mandatory porn TLD.
Non-porn sites would buy up .xxx domains just to get more traffic.
The person who has most recently sought control over the .xxx TLD is a gold digger who wants the TLD in order to charge monopoly-level prices ($60 each) for domains:
http://news.com.com/2010-1026-5176611.htmlIf that weren't enough, even social conservatives -- who you'd think would support .xxx in the hope that it would eventually become mandatory -- don't support it. ICANN killed the .xxx proposal last spring because of pressure from the social conservative junta in the U.S. government. They think that giving porn its own TLD somehow legitimizes it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/11/icann_kills_xxx/
