Nominet plans to suspend or de-register .uk domain names that promote serious sexual offences

Nominet announced today that it plans to update the .uk domain name registration policy so that it can suspend or de-register .uk domain names that promote serious sexual offenses.

Although Nominet says that it will play no role in policing website content it plans to institute a system of post-registration domain name screening, within 48 hours of registration, for domain names that appear to signal or encourage serious sexual offences.  Where examples that meet these criteria are discovered, they will be suspended or de-registered.

This plan seems a bit strange to me and may have zero effect on criminal offences. Most domain names are registered with the default nameservers and even if the registrant changes the nameservers immediately DNS changes made, can expect a propagation time of up to 24 hours. And that is if the registrant has already setup web hosting and built the offending website. 48 hours seems to be a very small time window to accomplish anything.

If their plan is to suspend domains using only an automated screening based on certain keywords then this could lead on many legitimate domain names getting deleted.

• Institute a system of post-registration domain name screening, within 48 hours of registration, for domain names that appear to signal or encourage serious sexual offences.  Where examples that meet these criteria are discovered, they will be suspended or de-registered.
• Nominet will play no role in policing website content. If domain names otherwise signal criminal content and they are brought to Nominet’s attention, it will refer these cases to the police for further action, in keeping with our current policy.
• Nominet will amend its terms and conditions to make it clear that registration of a domain name that appears to signal a serious sexual offence will constitute a breach of our terms of business.
• We will also make it clear that use of a .uk domain name for criminal purposes is not permitted and will be suspended or de-registered.