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The multi-stakeholder community gathered in Seville, Spain, for the ICANN Policy Forum from 8 to 11 June to continue discussing current issues and developments regarding the structuring and safeguarding of the internet. The “Child Protection and Children’s Rights in the Digital World” project run by the Digital Opportunities Foundation has been actively involved in the ICANN community for years, working to ensure that aspects of child protection, in particular, are taken into account within the Domain Name System (DNS). The focus is on efforts to implement a human rights impact assessment and further developments in the context of the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS), as well as the new round of generic top-level domain (gTLD) launches.
Top-level domains (TLDs) are the final part of an internet address (for example, .de, .org or .com). Due to their popularity and widespread use, a TLD offers high visibility on the one hand, and represents a commercial opportunity for the relevant registrar on the other. From our perspective, however, a TLD also entails a significant responsibility. We will therefore be examining the applications and potential allocation of new gTLDs in detail over the coming months.
ICANN opened the application round for new gTLDs on 30 April, and it will close on 12 August. The relevant stakeholders anticipate around 2,000 applications. Following a preliminary evaluation process, ICANN will publish a list of all eligible gTLD applications in October 2026. We will use this as an opportunity to examine any new gTLDs from a children’s rights perspective. The focus will be in particular on those top-level domains that relate to children’s lives, interests or needs. The aim of our engagement will be to approach potential registrars at an early stage, to raise awareness of their responsibilities in the administration of such a TLD and, where appropriate, to encourage them to adopt voluntary codes of conduct. Should this review give rise to significant concerns or reservations regarding the allocation of a gTLD to a potential registrar, we will use the existing participation mechanisms during the allocation process to bring this to ICANN’s attention.
In order to shape this process together, we will be reaching out to organisations working in the field of child protection and children’s rights and inviting them to contribute to the process outlined above. If you are interested in getting involved in this process, please contact us at tkrause[at]digitale-chancen[dot]de.