The chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has called for more debate before the .xxx domain for pornography is approved.

In a letter to ICAAN, Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi warned that the committee had been receiving comments from governments around the world about the introduction of the domain. The proposed domain will not be compulsory for pornography sites and is expected to be more expensive than standard domains.

"You may recall that during the session between the GAC and the Board in Luxembourg some countries had expressed strong positions to the Board on this issue," said Tarmizi.

"In other GAC sessions, a number of other governments also expressed some concern with the potential introduction of this top level domain (TLD). I would like to request that in any further debate that we may have with regard to this TLD, that we keep this background in mind."

The letter comes after Michael D. Gallagher, assistant secretary for communications and information in the US Commerce Department, wrote to ICAAN expressing strong reservations about the formation of the domain. He said that the department had received 6,000 letters of complaint about the plans.

ICM Registry, the group who would oversee the .xxx domain, issued a statement yesterday evening saying that they would support a delay of a month to allow for more consultation.

"ICM Registry does not want the .xxx TLD to be used to undermine the integrity of the ICANN process, and we have therefore asked the ICANN Board to defer final approval of the registry agreement for a month," said chairman Stuart Lawley.

"During that month, ICM Registry is committed to meeting with GAC members and the US Department of Commerce to discuss the concerns they are hearing, and to provide information on the ways in which we think creation of a voluntary top level domain for responsible providers of adult online entertainment can help to make the Internet a more family-friendly environment."

But the .xxx domain has found support from the UK's Mediawatch, formerly the National Viewers and Listeners Association that was set up by Mary Whitehouse.

"In some ways there is an advantage in the .xxx domain for people who want to avoid pornography," said John Bayer, director of Mediawatch.

"It would stop a lot of access to porn sites. But what this doesn't do is to remove pornography altogether from all other websites; that's a very big problem."
He pointed out that the domain would not stop pornography appearing on other sites or coming up during random searches. He said that he had met with Michael Howard to discuss the problem, and one solution favoured by Mediawatch would be prosecuting ISPs for transmitting violent or child pornography.