The .xxx Internet domain for pornography is a major step closer to becoming a reality after an authoritative body announced June 25 its approval of the proposal.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the creation of Web addresses, reversed course after a decade of denying the request and voted to allow the application for the domain to move forward.

Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land described the decision as “a bad idea that will have damaging and far-reaching consequences.”

“Instead of restricting pornography to a zone of such .xxx-labeled sites, it will expand the amount of pornography available on the Internet and further pollute our nation’s psyche with the spiritual toxic waste that is pornography,” Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press.

“In lieu of searching for ways to expand the reach of this destructive material, as is the intent of this decision by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, society should be focused on reining in the availability of this undistilled evil that corrodes souls, tears apart families and threatens our nation’s moral fabric at its base,” Land said.

Donna Rice Hughes, president of the anti-pornography Enough Is Enough organization, likewise noted, “The creation of a .xxx domain sounds good in theory but is a very bad idea” that will “allow Internet pornographers to co-locate their content on both their existing .com domains and the new .xxx domain, thus dramatically increasing pornography’s pollution of the Internet.”

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on bpnews.net—however, the original URL is no longer available.]