One of the key topics at ICANN’s Annual General Meeting was the current round for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). From 17 to 22 October, the multi-stakeholder community gathered in Bali (Indonesia) to discuss this issue. However, the agenda also included ongoing processes, such as preventing and combating the abuse of the Domain Name System (DNS) and taking human rights impact assessments (HRIA) into account. Alongside the allocation of new gTLDs, the ‘Child Protection and Children’s Rights in the Digital World’ project focuses on the continued operation of the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) and the handling of urgent requests (UR) as being of particular importance for advancing the consideration of children’s rights within the DNS.
Applications for new generic top-level domains were open from 30 April to 12 August 2026. There are currently 1,616 applications under consideration. Among the gTLDs applied for are a number of domains that are of interest from a children’s rights perspective, as they relate to children’s everyday lives, interests or needs. As part of the project, we will examine these applications in more detail and may approach the potential registrars. Our aim would be to raise awareness of their responsibilities in the administration of such a gTLD and, where appropriate, to encourage them to enter into voluntary code of conducts. Should this prove ineffective, and should our examination give rise to further concerns or reservations regarding the allocation of a gTLD to a potential registrar, we will consider utilising the existing participation mechanisms during the process to bring our perspective to ICANN’s attention. To this end, we are collaborating with other organisations and exchanging views on the assessment and evaluation of the gTLD applications.
With regard to the processing of urgent requests to the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS), work is progressing on the development of a procedure enabling law enforcement authorities to authenticate themselves to ICANN. This mechanism is intended to ensure that there are no avoidable delays in processing requests, as these must first be checked to verify that the requesting body is an official authority and is authorised to receive the relevant information. In designing the authentication procedure, the focus is on technical and operational aspects that take into account the security of the process as well as the privacy and data minimisation of those involved.
With the online-based platform for querying registration data, ICANN made an instrument available in November 2023, with which authorities and individuals with a legitimate interest can obtain information on unpublished gTLD registration data via a standardised procedure. The service operates as an intermediary between those seeking information and the various registries. The advantage of this is that such a request only needs to be addressed to one central point. This is important for law enforcement authorities, for example, if they need to find out who owns a domain through which depictions of child sexual abuse are made available online. Previously necessary investigations to determine which register is responsible for the respective domain can therefore be dispensed with.