kids.us - a "child protection zone" at the web

Today, Secura GmbH announced it is accepting registrations for the new kids.us domain names during the sunrise period.NeuStar Inc.,the registry of US-Domains, committed itself to offer a "child-friendly" zone in the internet which should be free of violence, pornography and other unsuitable material. The domain "kids.us" can be registered by customers with relations to the USA starting at 4th September 2003, while owners of registered US brand names can reserve their service marks and trade marks in a special sunrise period till 15th August 2003.Interested persons and companies can pre-register kids.us for free or register during the sunrise period at the websites of ICANN Registrar Secura ( https://www. domainregistry.de/us.html or at http://www.us-domains.us).

The US-congress instructed NeuStar to establish the offer of kids.us at the end of the last year. President Bush signed the

"Children Internet Safety Legislation" at December 4 2002. The President declared at this event to the press:

"Dot Kids will be part of the U.S. country domain on the Internet. It will function much like the children's section of the library, where parents feel comfortable allowing their children to browse. Be a safe place for children to go. This bill is a wise and necessary step to safeguard our children while they use computers and discover the great possibilities of the Internet. Every site designated .kids will be a safe zone for children. The sites will be monitored for content, for safety, and all objectionable material will be removed."

As the President told, Websites within the "kids.us"-namespace are monitored by NeuStar, in order to secure that they do not show violence,pornography in text or pictures or contain other material unsuitable for children under 13. NeuStar wants to exclude also certain interactive tools as chatrooms and Instant Messaging or active links to pages outside of the us.kids-domain. NewStar will use automatic software and human monitoring, in order to secure that "kids.us" websites remain "child-friendly" and agefair.

Every expert expected that the idea of kids.us is controversially discussed in forums and in letters to the editor. But the problem of the conflict between

protection of children and freedom of press and speech exists at all attempts to realize protection of children and young people. If there are books for children, why there is to be not also a special web for children? Nevertheless kids.us is a serious attempt to protect children.

Companies, which focus "kids" as a target group for their products or services, will register kids.us-domains. Children will unprobably get themselves a kids.us- domain. It could be anyway only possible with the help of the parents.