The decision by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will be a relief for Communications Minister Helen Coonan who has long rejected the idea of a separate area for adult content.
Senator Coonan has previously said the .xxx domain would do nothing to curb adult content, and could even make it worse as adult content companies registered .xxx domains while retaining their existing .com sites.
Australian representatives at the ICANN meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, had been instructed to vote against the proposed scheme.
ICANN ultimately decided the .xxx proposal would not resolve issues on how to protect vulnerable members of the community.
“This decision was the result of very careful scrutiny and consideration of all the arguments,” said ICANN chairman Dr Vint Cerf. “That consideration has led a majority of the Board to believe that the proposal should be rejected,” he said.
The Lisbon meeting was the 28th public meeting of ICANN, which uses the meetings co-ordinate internet traffic issues, and to let user issues bubble to the surface.
ICANN administered the address names that govern internet traffic, like common address suffixes like .com and .org, or less common addresses like .museum. It also administers country code addresses like .au.
The next ICANN public meeting will be held in Puerto Rico in June.
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