Escort site registers despite safeguards

DESPITE PRIDING itself on having the second safest country domain name, the IE Domain Registry, which manages the .ie internet address space, has been forced to register a website which appears to offer prostitution services.

The address escortireland.ie was last week assigned to a Cork man who registered the business name "Escort Ireland". Under the rules applied by the IEDR, which is regulated by ComReg, the holder of a business name is entitled to register the matching .ie web address.

This is the first time an Irish escort website has been set up with an .ie address. Websites using .com addresses have advertised Irish prostitutes for many years. In 2001, a case went to court where a businessman posted details of a female rival on one of these sites.

The IEDR is a managed registry. This means that unlike .com, .net and .eu, anyone seeking to register an address has to provide proof of identity and authentication of their entitlement to the address. It is understood in this case proof of a registered business name was provided.

"The IEDR has no mandate or control over content placed on .ie sites once registered," said David Curtin, IEDR chief executive. "However, in the unlikely event that a .ie website is used to host fraudulent or illegal content, consumers and the Irish internet community can rest assured that the relevant authorities have the necessary information to track down those responsible and take whatever action they deem appropriate."

A website that promotes the services of prostitutes within the State is likely to breaking the law under the Criminal Law Act 1997, which makes it an offence to aid or abet the organisation or running of a brothel, according to Paul Lavery, a partner with law firm McCann FitzGerald.

Although the site does not explicitly state the women are providing sexual services, it features profiles of women in various states of undress and lists their mobile phone numbers. Prices are also quoted for different periods including half hours, one hour, two hours and overnight.

Although the website has an Irish address, the content is hosted on servers in the US by Kaboom Hosting.

The news comes in the same week that a new report from security software company McAfee shows that the number of .ie websites containing malware, or malicious software, has increased from 0.11 per cent to 0.3 per cent in the last year. Despite the disimprovement, Ireland is the sixth safest domain in this regard.