More on .kids.us

In critiquing the .xxx TLD, I took a brief swipe at the .kids.us debacle. Meanwhile, during my trip, Reuters ran a good retrospective article on the complete failure of the domain. As the article says:

“while Congress and administrator NeuStar set plenty of restrictions to keep online predators and inappropriate content out of the .kids.us domain, they didn’t provide many incentives to bring Web sites in.”

That hits the nail on the head. Sites in .kids.us must comply with COPPA (which is expensive) and have difficulty making money from kids who don’t have access to credit cards. Hmm…let’s do the math…extra expense and low ability to make money. I’m shocked that it hasn’t been a hit in the marketplace.

.kids.us is a great example of Congress run amok. In its zeal to address Internet porn, but stymied by repeatedly being slapped on the hands for passing unconstitutional laws, Congress thought it could solve the problem by creating a new market niche. Only problem: the niche doesn’t exist (at least, in the form that Congress mandated). If it did, I am 100% confident that the market will find a way to solve the problem without Congress’ help.

An older but good article discussing .kids.us.