.kids Pre-Register Domain - .kids Domain Information

Hong Kong (DotKids Foundation will be a not-for-profit limited-by-guarantee corporation incorporated in HK. Due to limited resources in the preparation of this application DotAsia Organisation has generously supported the registration of the DotKids Foundation entity in the simplest and most economical form currently. Upon successful approval of the .kids application, DotKids Foundation will be constituted with the draft Memorandum & Articles of Incorporation attached)

The DotKids Foundation proposes the .kids gTLD as a domain dedicated to serving the global kids community. DotKids' nature is community-based. As defined by Article 1 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm), there is a clear definition of children: they are every human under 18 years old. The DotKids Foundation will adopt the UNCRC as our guiding principle, therefore to run the domain name where we encourage children participation on Internet Governance discussion, and to promote a kids-friendly Internet space, as well as to provide support to the children community, especially to Kids-led initiatives and projects supporting kids' best interests.

a) Adopt UNCRC as our guiding principle for operations

According to UNCRC Article 13, "the child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the childʹs choice."

Adopting the UNCRC, DotKids Foundation believes that children are entitled to the freedom to express opinions and to have a say in matters affecting their social, economic, religious, cultural and political life online. Based on the UNCRC, DotKids Foundation have the best interests of kids in mind in the promotion of the well being of children online and uphold children's rights

b) Encourage children's participation online

A core principle of the Internet governance discussion is in its multi-stakeholder model, where everyone can participate. Kids is one of the important stakeholders of the Internet world as Internet is becoming widely available to many people at their early stages of development. The inclusion of children in the building process is important, and that their participation indeed also makes the multi-stakeholder model of the Internet stronger. However, there is still not enough Internet Governance discussion that involves children as they require extra guidance, facilitation and also financial support. DotKids Foundation aim to contribute to addressing these needs.

As a not-for-profit organization, DotKids Foundation is dedicated to developing and operating the .kids TLD as an economically viable registry that not only provides a kids-friendly namespace for the Internet, but also have the capability to contribute funds to projects that support the training of children to participate in global Internet governance. Furthermore, as the Foundation and the .kids TLD grows, we hope to contribute more widely to projects enhancing the wellbeing of children, especially as related to their wellbeing online, but also their general welfare.

Beyond supporting kids' participation in global Internet governance, DotKids Foundation itself will also act as a breeding ground for kids to be involved with the Internet Governance discussion process. We will incorporate children-led groups (such as Kids Dream in Hong Kong, Kid's Link from Fiji, and the Children's Committee from Cambodia) as part of its organizational structure and governance, as children advisory councillors. The DotKids Foundation believes that this process not only ensures that the voices of children are heard in all policy development processes, but will also contribute to nurturing children participation in Internet governance and other global policies in general.

c) Create a kids friendly internet space

Provide an Internet space with best interests of kids in mind

Create a movement where content providers would create websites for kids from kids' perspective -
We have published books specially designed for kids. However, there are no websites that are specifically designed for kids' from their angles. The DotKids foundation will develop guideline for content providers for reference.

Development of relevant guideline

Kids-friendly is not primarily about safety, but also the complexity of information, effectiveness and attractiveness of its presentation to kids. In order to be truly kids-friendly, the platform should be built from a child's point of view but not merely an illustration from the adults. For example, today there is a lot of information online, but many articles, such as on Wikipedia, even though may be kids "safe", may not be kids "friendly". The language, presentation and flow are all important parts of making content kids-friendly.

".kids", as the specific domain dedicated to the kids community, will have a core mandate to advocate the production and publishing of more kids friendly content online. One of the goals of the .kids TLD would be to develop it as a domain of choice for kids friendly content, which in turn engages the interest of kids and hence the participation of kids globally to take part in contributing to the Internet world.

UNCRC encourages the development of appropriate guidelines

According to Article 17 of the UNCRC, it encourages the development of appropriate guidelines for the protection of the child from information and material injurious to his or her well-being, bearing in mind the provisions of articles 13 and 18. The DotKids Foundations develops a set of appropriate guidelines for the takedown mechanism and the protection system to protect the children from materials on the content of the internet that may harm and disturb kids.

All .kids registrants must adopt the guideline and the failure to adhere to the guidelines will be grounds for suspension of the domain. The mechanisms for suspension is further discussed in #20e. Registrants are also encouraged to produce content and services that are kids friendly and would enhance the browsing and user experience of kids.

Protection Scheme designed and maintained by children rights experts

Beyond the standard gTLD dispute resolution (UDRP) and suspension policies (URS) the ".kids" registry will develop and implement special dispute and rapid suspension policies as mechanisms to curb inappropriate content and services. Further details are included in #20e.

d) Support and Contribute to the Children Community

As a not-for-profit organisation, DotKids is committed to contribute to the children community including the support to children's rights, children welfare and other children oriented initiatives. The .kids TLD aims to drive not only the social value but also to leverage the economic value that could be developed from this domain to contribute back to the children community and fund projects with kids' best interest at heart.

The Foundation hopes to serve as a sustainable source of support to various children-related initiatives and organizations. This enables the community to have sufficient resources in advocating the rights of child, especially those from developing countries and the minority groups who are always in lack of support and resources.

The utmost mission of DotKids is to make the domain name self-sustainable, while able to serve our community and meet our goals.

A. Competition

.kids helps in promoting constructive competition in the use of TLDs by promoting of kids friendly content, which in turn advances constructive competition among content providers, including education and infotainment publishers to increase kids friendly content.

B. Consumer Trust

At the heart of the .kids TLD vision is the enhancement of consumer trust: to develop a trusted, secure and stable platform with kids' best interests in mind.  While DotKids does not believe in censorship, a core policy of the .kids TLD is a rapid suspension policy to mitigate against harmful materials for kids.

C. Consumer Choice

.kids provides a choice for registrants to associate with and lend their support to kids friendly content and services.  Internet users, especially kids, can choose to browse to .kids websites for kids friendly content.

.kids with its community-based nature is believed to offer the below distinguished benefits to the registrant, Internet users and the Internet world as a whole:
• An enhanced consumer choice for registrants or other Internet users with a highly identifiable and measurable segment for differentiated or concentrated marketing at a heightened accessibility
• A better-tailored user experience for the targeted end-users through developing Content Guidelines for content providers as reference
• A specialized Internet space of higher trust and confidence level for both the end-users and the various related stakeholders

Area of Specialty
The kids community of children includes the segments as below:

1) Kids: Defined by the UNCRC convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier

2) Charities, non-government organizations and government institutions that work on the well-being of children. This also includes the alliances that promotes causes that promote the well-being of children

3) Parents and educators: As a matter of fact, they constitute a large part of and have a huge impact on a child's growth.

4) Educational institutions, organizations and operations that are primarily serving children

The resources at DotKids will be channeled towards meeting the demands and needs of these specific groups. We will also devote to create a movement where content providers would create websites for kids from kids' perspective. DotKids will also devote resources to createrelevant guidelines for registrants and content providers to design kids-friendly content websites.

Service level
DotKids is committed to establish a trusted and extended kids-friendly space for children which enables them to acquire information online at ease. We will come from the perspective of children, each registrant will get access to the Guideline which we developed to facilitate
registrants in maintaining their website. This also helps registrants to effectively communicate to their target group. On top of that, resources generated from the domain registration will contribute back to the kids community so as to further support their development and participation.

To ensure the content is not harmful to children, we have the Protection Scheme in place designed and maintained by children right experts. In adhering to Article 13 where it states children have the freedom to acquire knowledge; we do not intend to censor any information. In view of the special needs of kids, the Protection Mechanism will be in place. We have designed an online portal where it allows children experts from around the globe to vote on whether the content is harmful to kids when any Internet user reports any cases. Moreover, they are handled immediately with serious offences of the content guideline. Any Internet users can report a violation of the Content Guidelines. Details of the Protection Mechanism will be outlined in 20e.

Reputation as Kids' Best Interest Domain
We aim to be recognized as a domain that is the ultimate destination for kids browsing online, in terms of relevance of content and user-friendliness. DotKids will become the primary choice of gTLD for kids-related businesses or content; and the cornerstone in supporting children-centric initiatives and Internet development.

ANTICIPATED BENEFITS TO THE CURRENT SPACE

Improved Competition

As the first TLD specifically serving the children community, the establishment of .kids domain will provide an alternative consumer choice and thereby allowing registrants to choose a name that best fits their need and to best reach their target group online. To be a gTLD available globally, it must promote a constructive competition in the domain industry.

Differentiation and Innovation

DotKids is designated as an online space for kids, whereby it would set apart other domain name spaces regarding the relevance of the content for kids, and how the content are produced with kids' best interest in mind. Moreover, with the Protection Scheme in place maintained by other children right experts, we can ensure the information within the DotKids domain is not harmful to children. This provides a significant differentiation to other TLDs.

Moreover, DotKids is set up as a not-for-profit organization, and revenue from selling the domain names will channel back to community projects for children, especially those related to Internet governance discussion. DotKids would also be a ground for training children on Internet Governance discussion, by including them into our Advisory Board whereby we include their voices in the operations of our domain. This sets us apart from other profit making community based gTLD, which does not channel resources on the betterment of this underprivileged sector.

Improving User Experience

We have primarily divided our intended users into 2 segments, the primary user being the registrant, and secondary user are the Internet users accessing the domain.

The primary reason of registering a domain name is to establish an online presence, whereby it would help the registrants on various aspects, including enhanced visibility, promotion of their brand and eventually to improve their business operations. In clearly defining our community, it is much easier to reach to the target group (our community) for using DotKids domain, instead of using other TLD. Better search results, together with easier reach to their target group provide registrants clear benefits as to why register a DotKids domain instead of other gTLDs.

Regarding the Internet users who would access the domain, our published Guidelines would help registrants to create more relevant content to our community, whereby our community has the trust in our Protection Scheme that children right experts are looking after their needs in not reaching to harmful content for the community.

These policies and design in place help differentiate our positioning, and also to create a better experience both for the primary and secondary users of the TLD.

INTENDED REGISTRATION POLICIES

Our gTLD will operate as a community TLD, whereby we would put the needs of our community as our priority. Although much of the policies are not operated till after the user registered, including the Board governance structure of including kids in the discussion picture (please refer to 20b), Protection Scheme (please refer to 20e) and development of the Guidelines (please refer to 20e), the registration policy also reflect the design of the best interest domain for kids.

Eligibility for a .kids domain name in the initial stage is limited to children centric organizations, initiatives around the world, i.e., Non-governmental organization (NGO), children's product manufacturers, suppliers, importers and crafters. It must own a registered trademark and authenticated as a legitimate service in the industry.

The second stage is for trademark protection. Applicants should provide a proof of ownership in a trademark. The third stage is an online auction which offers the general public the opportunity to bid electronically. The details of Sunrise Process please refer to 20e.

Privacy and Confidentiality Protection

As a socially responsible operator, the Registry is dedicated to ensuring that the privacy users and confidentiality of information is protected. The Registry, leveraging the infrastructure supported by its Registry Back-End Services provider, Afilias, maintains a highly secure environment physically and technically to ensure that confidential information are not leaked. The Registry is also committed to developing and implementing policies that complies with privacy laws in the locality it operates out of and can be compatible with privacy laws of registrars and registrants of the registry. The Registry understands that there is no guarantee of compatibility of such laws especially given the global nature of the DNS and of the Internet at large, and is committed to dedicate itself, especially through its partner DotAsia (through Namesphere, as the Registry Front-End Services Provider for the Registry), to participate in the global Internet Governance discourse on the subject.

The Registry is committed to introducing the .Kids TLD in an orderly manner to minimize the social costs and maximize the social value of the TLD. Following the successful launch of the .ASIA TLD, and leveraging the experience and knowledge from the DotAsia (through Namesphere), the Registry is committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive startup process that would include, besides Sunrise and Landrush processes, a Multi-Category Pioneer Domains Program.

The Pioneer Domains Program will be designed to curb abusive registrations, whereby reducing social costs, as well as to promote the adoption of the TLD, to maximize the social value of the TLD. An important goal of the program is to allow for the introduction of showcase domains under the TLD in a well structured manner, while ensuring that the protection of the rights of others are maintained. The implementation of showcase domains support the development of positive foundation of usage of the TLD. More detailed explanation of the overall startup process is included in #29.

In response to the question specifically:
1. Mechanisms for Resolving Multiple Applications to a Domain

A comprehensive Sunrise and Landrush program will be put in place at the launch of the TLD. As an important stakeholder of the Registry, DotAsia (through Namesphere) will be lending its experience and knowledge in the development of an appropriate Sunrise and Landrush program that includes mechanisms for resolving multiple applications to a domain when the TLD is first launched. More detailed explanation of the approach is included in #29. In short, during the Sunrise and Landrush processes, a first come first served model will not be used as previous launches has demonstrated that such mechanism creates undue tension, chaos and frustration in the process. Applications for domains will be received within a designated time period and all applications received within such period will be considered to be received at the same time. All applicants will be verified first for their eligibility against the Sunrise and Landrush policies respectively. If there is only one successfully verified application for a particular domain, then it will be allocated directly. If there is more than one successfully verified application an auction will be held to resolve the contention.

During regular operations of the registry (upon GoLive and after Sunrise and Landrush), domain registrations will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. In cases of contention, the Registry will not prohibit the use of secondary market mechanisms for interested registrants to resolve the contention. Registrant transfers will be administered by accredited registrars without intervention by the Registry. In the cases of contention against abusive registrations, the Registry will adhere to the UDRP and URS procedures.

When a domain name registration is deleted and after completing the lifecycle according to ICANN requirements, the domain name will be re-released to the available pool and registrations will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. If activities to snatch names from this "dropzone" becomes contentious, the Registry is prepared to work closely with the community to provide better mechanisms to resolve contentions where appropriate.

2. Cost Benefits for Registrants

The registry intends to implement periodic cost reduction programs to encourage the adoption of the TLD by registrants. Such cost reduction programs can also be targeted towards key segments of the market in relation to the mission and vision of the Registry explained above. Based on the experience of DotAsia (through Namesphere), rebate programs that essentially lower the costs for registrants are one of the most effective ways to drive the adoption of a new TLD. Cost reduction oriented programs are included in the financial projections provided for #45-50.

Introductory programs will be important to drive awareness and interest in the TLD as well. These should include not only broad price discounts but also targeted programs. Based on DotAsia's past experience, targeted programs, such as Home Market Growth programs are effective in raising the awareness for targeted segments. Such programs can also come in the form of special price reduction promos or rebate type programs.

Besides price reduction programs, other cost benefits can also be introduced to registrants. For example, DotAsia also pioneered the offering of free gift redemption programs to spark interest from registrants as well as to drive the cost benefits for adoption of the TLD.

3. Contractual Commitments to Registrants

The Registry will abide by the ICANN Registry Agreement requirements as well as ICANN Consensus Policies, including to offer domain registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar upon GoLive (when normal first-come-first-served registrations begin). During Sunrise and Landrush the Registry will request multi-year initial registrations. The Registry does not plan to implement contractual commitments to registrars regarding the magnitude of price escalation, but is committed to providing a stable environment for registrations, including a stable pricing for registrars.

Besides policies and rules implemented, the Registry believes that prudent operations as an economically viable and socially responsible TLD operator in itself is an important mitigation of increased social costs as a new gTLD is being introduced. The Registry will leverage the knowledge and expertise from its technology provider and DotAsia to ensure that a substantial portion of the costs for operating the registry is managed in variable costs leveraging the economies of scale from already established operations and focus on delivering value to registrants and consumers with the introduction of the .Kids TLD and its mission and features.

Measures to curb abusive registrations will also be put in place to avoid costs from the community caused by such activities. Further details are included in the response to #28. Furthermore, security measures explained in #30 and #31 help reinforce a robust registry system to guard against DDOS and other malicious attacks which have implications to social costs. As explained above, above and beyond the compliance with the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) requirements, startup policies will be put in place to address issues around reserved names (#22) as well as trademark, copyright and intellectual property concerns (#29).

4. Protection Scheme

To facilitate the enforcement of the Guiding Principles described in 20e A. Eligibility, an express complaint-response system will be implemented through an online portal. The online portal will accept complaint reports of any inappropriate content from the public through a structured report form (i.e. such that the complainant can indicate the type of inappropriate content they are reporting and its severity in the view of the complainant, etc.). Upon the receipt of a complaint report, a takedown decision process will be initiated depending on the type of complaint report filed:

1: Illegal Content & Activities

In the case of a complaint report filed alleging illegal content and activity, the Registry, with the support from Afilias as the registry back-end services provider, will activate the Anti-Abuse process as described in #28 (Abuse Prevention & Mitigation). If the investigation based on the Abuse Policy finds the complaint to be substantiated, the Registry, with the support from Afilias, will act according to the Abuse Policy. If the investigation finds the complaint not to be of an abusive nature in the view of the Abuse Policy, the complaint will be passed to 2.

2: Inappropriate Content

In the case of a complaint report filed alleging inappropriate content or activity (or as a result of 1 above), the complaint report will be passed to the Monitoring Committee for further process. Anyone online can access the complaint-response portal to file a complaint report. This includes the DotKids Foundation itself as well as all members of the Foundation and members of the community. In fact, the DotKids Foundation is prepared to proactively guard against inappropriate content through this mechanism. A complaint report should clearly state the rationale of why the content or activity should be considered inappropriate and how the .kids domain is inconsistent with the .kids Guiding Principles and should be suspended.

Once filed, the report will be posted on the complaint-response portal and the Monitoring Committee will be notified.

Monitoring Committee

The Monitoring Committee consists of members of the Foundation, individuals from the Professional Advisory Council and other qualified children's rights, children services or children centric organization who volunteers to be on the notification list. Each Committee Member will be able to login to the complaint-response portal and place a "vote": Red, Yellow or Green against a complaint report filed:

Content Violation Indicators

Red: The domain has severely violated the .Kids Guiding Principles developed by the DotKids Foundation and the domain should be taken down.

Yellow: The domain has marginally violated the .Kids Guiding Principles, a warning should be given and if changes are not made and violation rectified in 10 calendar days, the website should be taken down.

Green: The website did not violate the .Kids Guiding Principles and no action should be made.

Takedown Action

The Voting Period commences immediately upon the posting of the complaint report and notifications sent to the Monitoring Committee. The following are trigger points for takedown or warning actions:

1) If at least 5 Reds and 0 Greens are received within the first 24 hours, the domain will be suspended and a warning notification issued to the registrant.

2) Else, after a 5 day (120 hour) Voting Period completes, the votes will be tallied and form of action will be chosen based on the category with the highest vote.

3) If there is a tie, the higher severity action will be taken.

The number of votes for each category for each complaint report will be maintained on the complaint-response portal, but the organization who casted a votes will remain anonymous.

Clear Delineation of our community: Kids Establishing ourselves as a kids' best interest domain, the .kids domain is intended for the kids community. Our primary beneficiary is certainly the kids themselves who are the major end-users of the kids-friendly space and benefiting from our advocacy. Defined by the UNCRC convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm) With the above clear definition of Kids, it shows that they are clearly delineated from the Internet community at large. Structure of the kids community: On top of kids in the community, consistent with Children Rights approach, the kids community does not exist independently and is supported by those who are no longer kids but are intricately involved with the primary beneficiaries: 1) Kids: Defined by the UNCRC convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier 2) Charities, non-government organizations and government institutions that work on the well-being of children. This also includes the alliances that promotes causes that promote the well-being of children 3) Parents and educators: As a matter of fact, they constitute a large part of and have a huge impact on a child's growth. 4) Educational institutions, organizations and operations that are primarily serving children Organized and active kids community There are many organisations dedicated to the kids community. Major international ones include UNICEF, Save the Children, Free the Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Club and many more. Among which UNICEF (Hong Kong Committee), Save the Children (Hong Kong), Boys' and Girls' Club (The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong) are already signed supporters of the DotKids initiative. They all have presence around their globe, and to address their own causes. Major causes that concerns children include adoption and fostering, education, human rights, disability, social care, child protection, health as well as other welfare. The community is very active and the different organizations hold regular activities around the world. Pre-existing community since the world started This community has existed since the beginning of mankind, and the recognition for the importance of it being identified as a delineated community can be traced back throughout history and more importantly in the 20th Century from the drafting the Declaration on the Rights of the Child by the League of Nations in 1923 leading up through the adoption of the UNCRC by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and the Convention becoming part of International Law in 1990. The document that best represents the idea of community that is formed around kids, is first witnessed back to 1923 when Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, summarised the rights of children in five points. Estimated size of the community Children and youths represent approximately 25% of the world population, or 2.5billion, as reported by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Excel-Data/population.htm) There is no geographical constraints to the community but members enter and leave with consistency and stability. There is an unlimited longevity as babies are still born and teenagers will grow past 18. Besides individuals (kids under 18), youth organisations, especially child-led initiatives are key members of the community. A mere estimation from online charity databases from Hong Kong, United States and United Kingdom add up to at least 4,300 significant charity organisations that serve the best interest of kids. Longevity of the community The kids community is a dynamic one. While there is a clearly defined age of children, the composition of the community and its needs changes with time and may continue be evolving. As such, this is a sizable community with a considerable longevity and most important of all, the need for dynamically evolving advocacy to address changing needs of the community. Summary In summary, the community is clearly delineated from the Internet users, well organized, pre-existing and extensive. This is demonstrated by the multitude of children's rights and children's welfare organizations around the world. Moreover, there is no end to the community as time progress, there will always be new additions to the community.

The Registry intends to remain independent to the community. However, the Registry will work closely with community organizations and will invite community organizations in its policy development processes and governance structure. Also, we see the participation from the community crucial to our success. Relations of Initial Working Group to the Community Cheney Cheng has been devoted to the advocacy of childrenʹs rights in Hong Kong and international level since 2004. In 2006, he co-founded Kidsʹ Dream, the first child-led organization promoting childrenʹs rights in Hong Kong with members more than 200 people now. He represented Kidsʹ Dream to attend various international conferences and meetings organized by United Nations (UN), Save the Children and other organizations. Cheney was leading the preparation of a report about the implementation of children's rights in Hong Kong to the UN. He was selected by the UN to be the Asia-Pacific representative in an advisory group evaluating the reporting system of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2008. Cheney is currently working in an Investment Bank and acts as a volunteer advisor to the DotKids Foundation. Elaine Cheng has been devoted to the advocacy of childrenʹs rights in Hong Kong and international level since 1999 when she was selected as one of the UNCRC Child Ambassadors of Hong Kong. As a founding member of the Children's Council in Hong Kong, she has also co-founded Kidsʹ Dream. She is now currently working at the DotAsia Organisation which is a not-for-profit registry of the TLD .Asia. Devoted to promote youth participation in Internet Governance, she thereafter founded the NetMission Ambassadors Programme in 2009. Bianca Ho has started her involvement with Internet Governance in 2008, where she was selected to be a NetMission Ambassador, a program organized by DotAsia Organisation. She received comprehensive training including seminars, workshops, site visits to gain a better understanding of the complexity of the Internet Governance discussion. Afterwards, She led a social campaign in the local community to raise public concerns towards digital divide. Relations to the community and its constituent groups Community support is a key element of the success of the DotKids foundation. We have gathered support from various parts of the world, including Hong Kong, Asia, Europe etc. We will continue to outreach to and engage with the community as the .kids Registry develops. Some of the many endorsements Received to Date: - Child Rights Coalition Asia (CRC Asia), Asia - Child Rights Information Center Moldova - The Smart Internet Foundation, Russia - Internet Learning Support Centre (ILSC), Hong Kong - Alliance for Children's Commission, Hong Kong: - Against Child Abuse - Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Hong Kong Association (BFHIHKA) - Caritas Family Crisis Line & Education Centre, Children Counseling Services - Children Rights Association - Caritas Youth & Community Service Head Office - Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong - Hin Keng Centre - Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong Social Service Head Office - The Hong Kong Childhood Injury Prevention and Research Association - Hong Kong College of Paediatricians - Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF - Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights (HKCCR) - Hong Kong Council of Early Childhood Education and Services - Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association - Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children - Playright Children's Play Association - Society for Community Organization - Suen Mei Speech & Hearing Centre - The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong - The Hong Kong Council of Social Service - TREATS - Save the Children Hong Kong - Kids' Dream - Ms Chan C.Y. Eliza - Mr Ken Chan - Dr Cheung Chiu Hung, Fernando - Dr Kwok Ka Ki - Mrs Priscilla Lui - Mrs Mak Yau Mei Siu, Teresa While we have people from the community in our working group, plus the necessary endorsement, .kids have mechanisms in place that ensure our accountability to the community. About DotKids Foundation The operating registry, DotKids Foundation, is a not-for-profit organization founded with the support of children rights organizations and a governance structure that openly invites children as well as children's rights organizations to participate in the application and operation of the domain ".kids". The initial working group will form the secretariat function of the Foundation and actively reach out to the community and invite children-right organizations to join the Foundation as members and form the Board of Councilors and Advisory Councils according to the following framework. Special Features of the Governance Structure and Operation: 1. A membership consortium formed by children-right organizations and children-led groups 2. Board Members formed by children-right organizations and professional individuals 3. Advisory Councils formed by children right professionals, IT technology specialist and children-led groups DotKids Foundation Governance Structure: The DotKids Foundation will conceptually be a consortium of Children Rights Group and relevant Organizations globally with the below 3 categories of membership established and the admission determined by the Board: a) International Members Organizations of children rights group or relevant organizations that are beneficial to children with proof, and with legal entities incorporated in 2 or more countries b) Local Members Same eligibility as international members, but only incorporated in 1 country c) Children Members Organizations or that are proven to be child-led and nominated by the existing International or local members The Board of Councilors will in total have not more than 11 seats with the below composition: including maximum of 3 Directors from the DotKids Foundation, maxiumum of 3 Directors nominated by International Members, maxiumum of 3 Directors nominated by Local Members and a maximum of 2 Directors shall be professional individuals. 2 Advisory Councils will be formed to offer advice and opinion to the Board on the all policy matters of the DotKids Foundation, including professional advisory council and children advisory council. We view Children Advisory Council is a good demonstration on our dedication to the community. We ensure a children-friendly discussion environment will be created where they may form different concern groups at times to freely express their opinion. The inclusion of children is a perfect exemplification of the principles of uor foundation. Finally, the Board of Councilors will create a Proceeds Steering Committee to oversee the allocation of surplus proceeds, if any, from the operations of Registry.Kids. This Committee may consist of board members, advisory councilors and or outside consultants. In general, the principles for the conceptual structure of DotKids Foundation are: - Ensure broad representation from the community and the voice of children are heard - Ensure operations and strategic direction of the registry to be towards the benefit of the community - Ensure that surplus management will be directed to relevant children-centric initiatives In summary, the .kids foundation's founding team members are experts in children rights. Moreover, we have already received endorsement from many of our community members. Also, our governance structure is the best example for our dedication to the community, and clearly states our accountability towards our members.

The .kids TLD is restricted to children centric organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), children's rights initiatives and children led initiatives in the first phase of Sunrise. Throughout the Sunrise, Landrush phases and upon Go Live, the .kids TLD is restricted to registrants who expressly adhere to the following Guiding Principles in the provision of content and services with their .kids domain Intended registrants in the TLD include members of the community, especially: 2) Charities, non-government organizations and government institutions that work on the well-being of children. 3) Parents and educators 4) Educational institutions, organizations and operations that are primarily serving children In general, organizations and businesses whose target group is kids, meaning anyone under the age of 18. The intended end-users would be kids, or anyone who might be interested in kids related services or products. PURPOSE OF THE COMMUNITY BASED gTLD a. Create a kids friendly Internet space The primary purpose of the community based gTLD is to best serve our stakeholders. As defined in 20a. They are kids, charities, NGO, government institutions and alliances; parents and educators, and any companies, manufacturers and educational institutions. Since there are clear distinctions of our community members, we can segment and define their needs. Needs of Kids: The ability to freely browse the Internet in acquiring information. Moreover, the information that they reach to is easy to comprehend. Needs of charities, NGOs, government institutions and alliances: Peace in mind where the information children reach to are constructive to their upbringing, and is not harmful to children Needs of parents and educators: Having the peace in mind where children can browse the Internet freely, while not having to worry whether they reach to harmful information that would affect their upbringing. Needs of companies, manufacturers and educational institutions: Abilty to reach to their target group, children more effectively and easily Our purpose is to best serve the needs of our community members. b. Encourage children's participation online c. Support and contribute to the children community In order to be able to support and contribute back to our community, we would first need to be self-sustainable and not rely on uncontrollable factors to generate our income, such as donations. RELATED ACTIVITIES TO SERVE OUR PURPOSE The string of the domain, as well as policies in place of DotKids will ensure that the domain namespace will be more relevant to these target groups. Concrete actions that DotKids has taken include the design of Sunrise registration policies where we prioritize non-governmental organization (NGO), children centric organizations, children's product manufacturers, suppliers, importers and crafters.Moreover, the Guiding Principles that the registrants would need to agree ensure the registrants would design the website for kids on a best-efforts basis. Although after the Sunrise and Landrush policies, the domain names will be sold on a first-come-first serve basis, DotKids have policies the in place even after the initial stage of registration. The Protection Scheme will ensure things would not deviate from what we intended to. More details please refer to sections 18(a) and (b) above. LASTING NATURE OF THE PURPOSES Unlike adults, kids under 18 years old require more protection, care and guidance. The first ever legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights is the UNCRC. Understanding kids under 18 years old requires more protection, care and guidance than adults, in 1989, world leaders worked together to bring attention on the human rights of kids and designed the special convention just for the kids -- UNCRC. Moreover, provided that kids have different levels of understanding skills and language capability at different ages and maturity, they are undoubtedly a community with special social needs. According to a publication of the Scottish Government in January 2010 about advocacy support for children and young people, "Advocacy is about ensuring that children and young people can express their views and that these views are heard and taken into account by those who are involved in decision making about children and young peopleʹs lives." As a matter of fact, many policies and discussions related to kids nowadays are developed without the participation of kids themselves which kids have relatively low control and influence to the decision making process. Advocacy support is therefore important to ensure kids can express freely with adequate facilitation to overcome any communication barriers. While the current advocacy support emphasized by various Acts or guidelines of government bodies is mainly about situations that are related to formal processes such as legal hearings, we believe that advocacy for kids in the Internet world is also an important agenda for the development of kids. The .kids initiative is not about child protection, but about promoting kids-friendly content and an environment favorable to the development of children with the participation from children. Kids-friendly content is not only about safety, but about the effectiveness and attractiveness of the presentation of the same information to kids. It is often said that children are the future pillars of our society. But people often forget that children are also part of the present society. The .kids initiative embraces a world that respects the rights of the child not only in safety, but also their rights to participate in the development of relevant policies which will shape their world now and into the future. For harmonious and full development of kids' personality, kids have special social needs distinct from adults. Kids should grow up in the care and under the responsibility of the society. The DotKids Foundation is committed to protecting kids from unwanted materials that are likely to disturb and harm them, at the same time, entitling them basic human rights especially in the use of internet, providing them a platform for knowledge exploration, that embraces the freedom of expression and participation in global policies. The DotKids Foundation develops and promotes the children's best interests across areas of different human rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Under UNCRC, children all over the globe are entitled to have different basic human rights including the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The DotKids Foundation aspires to develop the ".kids" domain not only as a playground and knowledge exploration space for kids, but also as a nurturing ground for children participation in global policies, especially in Internet governance. The vision of the DotKids Foundation is rooted in the UNCRC and accepts the guiding principles of the Convention, including non-discrimination; adherence to the best interests of the child; the right to survival, protection and development; and the right to participation by the child.

The selected TLD string "kids" matches perfectly with the community that the DotKids Foundation serves. Based on our research, ".kids" is the most appropriate TLD string to represent the community in the context of an identity for the Internet. There are 3 major reasons that we think "kids" would be the best match for the community that we have defined: 1. Our community member's using the same string to define themselves 2. Similarity of the same spelling in other languages 3. Prevalence of the term on the Internet 1. Community Member Organisations utilizing "Kids" as their Main Name The string "Kids" is used by many organizations that comprise of our community. The following are just a few examples of the many kids/child-related organizations in the different continents, demonstrating the "Kids" is commonly known by others as the identification / name of the community: Examples From Asia - Kids' dream (http://www.kidsdream.org.hk) Hong Kong Child-led organization focus on children rights - Street kids rescue (http://streetkidsrescue.org/) The charity's mission is to support orphaned, homeless and sick children in Southeast Asia. Example from Europe - Kids (http://www.kids.org.uk) The national charity working with disabled children, young people and their families across England - Kids of Africa (http://www.kids-of-africa.com/) A charity based in Zurich, Switzerland whose mission is that the children will become a backbone of the next generation of Uganda's society by strengthening the economic and socio-cultural development of Uganda Examples From North America - Queen Pen Backing New York Kidsʹ Organisation Queen Pen, the rapper, lending her support to New York childrenʹs charity to reunite kids with their jailed parents. - Caribbean Kids and Families Therapy Organisation (http://www.ckfto.org/) Caribbean Kids and Families Therapy Organisation was founded in 2008 in Port of Spain, Trinidad by a mother of a child with special needs and an Occupational Therapist. Examples from Australia - Hug-Ur-Kids Organization (http://www.hugurkids.com/) Australian organization, providing many supportive services, along with helping many Custodial Parents to be re-united with their ʹabducted childrenʹ - Cure Kids (http://www.curekids.org.nz/) Address the lack of research into life-threatening childhood illnesses in New Zealand These are all organizations that the DotKids Foundation would invite as members of the organisation and are members of the community that we serve. The word "kids" clearly identifies and describes the community and the community members and do not over-reach beyond the community. As described, the DotKids Foundation adopts the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC) as its fundamental guiding principle. The UNCRC clearly defines the community as children under the age of 18, and the general use of the word "kids" is not normally used for persons beyond such boundaries of the community. 2. Similarity of the same spelling in other languages In selecting and researching the appropriateness of the string to represent the community, we also looked into the similarity of the concept in different languages. Our findings indicated that many languages use similar word origins for the same meaning as "kids" in English: 1. Afrikaans: kinders 2. Basque: kids 3. Dutch: kinderen 4. German: Kinder 5. Norweigian: Kids As for the word "kids" in English, the definition offered by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is as follows: 1. A young goat 2. The flesh, fur or skin of a kid 3. A young person, especially child While only the last definition is the same with our intended meaning, the most common understanding of the string "kids" is the same as our intended meaning. Kid as defined as "a young goat" has no significant meaning to a broad base of the Internet users. To establish that "kids" have a much broader understanding and relation to our community in the context of a TLD, we further observe that: Searching: kids goat In Google returned about 65,700,000 results; Whereas searching: kids children In Google returned about 1,290,000,000 results. This demonstrates a significantly greater correlation between the string "kids" and the community we serve. 3. Prevalence of the term "kids" on the Internet In determining whether "kids" is a well known term for the community, we also looked in the thesaurus of the word "kids" and found the following relevant synonyms: kids / kid; youngster; youth; lad; teenager; child; tot; children To further establish the prevalence of the term "kids" on the Internet versus the other forms, we looked at the search results from 3 different search engines and compared the results returned for each keyword: Kids Google (in mm) 2580 Yahoo (in mm) 58.9 Bing (in mm) 1420 Total (in mm) 4058.9 Children Google (in mm) 2560 Yahoo (in mm) 54.4 Bing (in mm) 1360 Total (in mm) 3874.4 Child Google (in mm) 1630 Yahoo (in mm) 270 Bing (in mm) 1780 Total (in mm) 3680 Youth Google (in mm) 796 Yahoo (in mm) 785 Bing (in mm) 354 Total (in mm) 1935 Tot Google (in mm) 785 Yahoo (in mm) 437 Bing (in mm) 213 Total (in mm) 1435 Teenager Google (in mm) 153 Yahoo (in mm) 166 Bing (in mm) 1110 Total (in mm) 1429 Lad Google (in mm) 107 Yahoo (in mm) 183 Bing (in mm) 27.1 Total (in mm) 317.1 Youngster Google (in mm) 30.4 Yahoo (in mm) 27.5 Bing (in mm) 15.6 Total (in mm) 73.5 Moreover, comparing on the Global Monthly Searches using the Google Adwords tool, kids has the most searches, with 124 mm searches while children only have 83 mm and child 83.1 mm. The string "kids" is also short, succinct and especially appropriate for use as a TLD over the other options. Based on the above, we believe that "kids" is the most prevalent form used on the Internet to describe our community. To further add to this, we have also found similar initiatives or previous usage of the same string: "kids" in domain names. This serves as a strong reason for the significance of this string and why it best represents the community we look to serve. - Kids.us The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 was designed to create a kid friendly domain .kids.us. This act was signed into law on December 4, 2002 (P.L. 107-317) by the US government. It authorizes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to require the .us registry operator to establish, operate, and maintain a second level domain within the .us TLD that is restricted to material suitable for minors. - Kids.net.au The search engine for Kids, Parents and Teachers. it includes a Directory of kids safe websites, Dictionary and Thesaurus including over 100,000 words, Encyclopedia with 1 million articles and a Language Translator. - kids.yahoo.com Yahoo Kids! is described as "the ultimate web guide for kids". It features fun and educational resources for kids with games, animals, music, jokes, movies, news, astrology etc., In summary, with the prevalence of its use in children's rights initiatives and on the Internet, we believe "kids" is the string that best matches the identity of the community, and that given the context of a TLD, ".kids" has no other significant meaning beyond identifying the community described in our application.

The mission and vision of DotKids is exemplified by the registration policies that reflect our community purpose. (Please refer to 20c): A) Eligibility: For registering a second-level name, and how will eligibility be determined The .kids TLD is restricted to children centric organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), children's rights initiatives and children led initiatives in the first phase of Sunrise. A multi-phased Sunrise process will be adopted (for more information please see application form #29). In a subsequent Sunrise phase, the standard ICANN new gTLD sunrise and Trademark Clearing House implementation will be offered for legitimate registered trademarks and service marks owners to obtain domains corresponding to their entity names. Throughout the Sunrise, Landrush phases and upon Go Live, the .kids TLD is restricted to registrants who expressly adhere to the following Guiding Principles in the provision of content and services with their .kids domain: 1) Strictly adhere to the UNCRC principles in the provision of content and services under the .kids domain; 2) Content, including the domain name itself, and services provided through the .kids domain must be appropriate for children under the age of 18 and must not include any materials related to: - Gambling - Illegal drugs - Pornography & Obscenity - Violence - Alcohol - Tobacco - Criminal Activities; 3) Illegal content is strictly prohibited (including but not limited to trafficking, substance of abuse, phishing, copyright infringement, and other illegal content as defined by the laws of the country for which the registrant and/or the sponsoring registrar resides); and, 4) Registrants pledge to use best efforts basis to offer kids friendly content and services (i.e. content that are more easily comprehendible for kids) on the .kids domain. Violation of any of the Guiding Principles is grounds for suspension or cancellation of the .kids domain name registration. The enforcement of the Guiding Principles are described in D) below. B) Name Selection In the earlier community Sunrise phase, name selection is restricted to names corresponding to the children centric organizations, NGOs and initiatives, and at the standard Sunrise / TMCH phase names corresponding to registered trademarks and legitimate marks and prior rights holders. In the Landrush and Go Live phases, registrants can self-select their .kids name of choice. Yet since the domain name is the first manifesting point of kids to the Internet to ensure the kids-friendliness in all aspects, the domain string itself will also be considered as part of the content and subject to the adherence of the Guiding Principles above. In other words, domain name that contains any inappropriate content (i.e. words or phrases) as regarded in the Guiding Principles will be considered in violation of the Guiding Principles. C) Content and Use UNCRC encourages the development of appropriate guidelines: According to Article 17 of the UNCRC, it encourages the development of appropriate guidelines for the protection of the child from information and material injurious to his or her well-being, bearing in mind the provisions of articles 13 and 18. The DotKids Foundation has developed a set of Guiding Principles as described above in A) and will continue to refine such Guiding Principles under the guidance of the community. It is mandatory for all .kids registrants to adhere to the Guiding Principles. Violation of the principles, whether or not intentionally by the registrant, especially if such violation results in the proliferation of materials likely to harm and disturb kids, will be grounds for cancelation, suspension and takedown of the domain name. The DotKids Foundation, along with children information experts, will further develop guidelines for registrants in the creation of kids-friendly content. For example, the use of kids-friendly language, graphics and presentation formats. While the protection of children against harmful information is important, the DotKids Foundation deeply understand that under UNCRC, children shall have basic human rights: According to UNCRC Article 13, the child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the childʹs choice. Under the guidelines developed by The DotKids Foundation, children are entitled to the freedom to express opinions and to have a say in matters affecting their social, economic, religious, cultural and political life. More importantly, that underlines an important principle of the .kids TLD to refrain from pre-screening or unnecessary censorship. The framework for enforcement of the Guiding Principles is further discussed below. D) Enforcement A Protection Scheme is developed and designed with the purpose of striking a balance between protecting kids from unwanted materials (UNCRC Article 17) and the freedom of expression online (UNCRC Article 13). Details of the Protection Scheme is included in the response to question 18c above: 4. Protection Scheme. Open Compliant Platform and Immediate Process Every netizen can file a complaint via the online portal with clear indication of the point of inappropriate content. The online portal enables all Internet users to contribute on building a kids-friendly Internet space at ease. Our initial projection of the number of domains is less than 5,000 within a 3-year period, so we do not expect an overwhelming number of abusive cases. Even with 10% of abusive rate over 3 years, our members would only receive a case approximately every 3 days. We understand the importance of prompt action against abusive materials, therefore when the content is clearly abusive, the domain would be taken down within 24 hours with over 5 Red Ratings. Our members would need to spend time on those cases where it might be borderline, or require more in-depth discussion, we would allow a longer time of voting period to decide the actions taken on those domains. Since the reporter of the abusive content would need to point out the exact page of the abusive content, it would only take at most a few minutes for our members, who are themselves expert in the children's rights community, to determine whether the content is abusive. Representative Decision of the Community The Protection Scheme is best maintained by children's rights experts around the world - who are members of the DotKids Foundation governance structure. We understand that there would be cultural differences as to what harmful material are in the eyes of people, however, the children right experts with a long experience of defending rights of children, would know the best. The online portal would be the most cost efficient way as well as effective way for us to reach to our members globally within a matter of seconds. Moreover, we understand that it would be physically difficult to have our members in present to vote on websites whether they have harmful content to kids. The online portal is the best way to aggregate the information and have allow our members to have flexibility to vote any time they can within the voting period. This platform is scalable, especially because this can be used with 10 members, or 10,000 members. The DotKids foundation would only need to handle the administrative process for each organisation, but not for using the resources to host a voting meeting every time. As the DotKids Foundation grows, we expect the Monitoring Committee to grow as well. It is reasonable to expect that as the ".kids" TLD grows, the interest and willingness of organizations and volunteers to participate in the Monitoring Committee would grow as well. We have set the preliminary takedown limit as 5 votes from our members. With the growing interest and size of the domain, we expect this number would be reviewed periodically. Eventually, we would hope that it would be around 3% of our total members that would constitute a significant action and representation from our members. The low threshold represents a conservative approach towards reasonably strong protection towards the content in our domain. In summary, the Protection Scheme is the most time and cost effective way for collecting opinion from children rights experts around the world.

Q 22 Geographic Names Protection

The Registry is committed to following the GAC advice and Specification 5 of the New gTLD Agreement in the protection of geographic names for registrations under the TLD.

More specifically, the Registry commits to:

a) Adopt, before the new gTLD is introduced, appropriate procedures for blocking, at no cost and upon demand of governments, public authorities or IGOs, names with national or geographic significance at the second level of the TLD.

b) Ensure procedures to allow governments, public authorities or IGOs to challenge abuses of names with national or geographic significance at the second level of the TLD

Building on the experience from .INFO and .ASIA in their handling of country and government related names, the Registry will develop and establish policies for:

1) obtaining and maintaining a list of names with national or geographic significance to be reserved (at no cost to governments) upon the demand of governments, public authorities or IGOs;

2) process for registrants to apply for and for the Registry to obtain consent from the respective government, public authorities or IGOs in the releasing of such reserved geographic names; and

The procedures may be similar to the management of governmental reserved names for .ASIA (Section 3.4 of http://dot.asia/policies/DotAsia-Reserved-Names--COMPLETE-2007-08-10.pdf). In summary:

I) The Registry will adhere to the New gTLD Registry Agreement Specification 5 requirements regarding 2. Two-Character Labels as well as 5. Country and Territory Names;

II) Before the launch of the TLD, the Registry will also proactively reach out to governments around the world, especially through GAC members (and ccTLD managers where appropriate), to solicit from them their demand for reserving any names with national or geographic significance at the second level of the TLD;

III) The Registry will develop mechanisms and maintain a list of governmental reference contacts, especially through correspondence with GAC members and ccTLD managers where appropriate. The corresponding reference contact(s) will be contacted in case a registration request is received for a governmental reserved name. If the consent from the governmental contact is received, the registration request will be approved. The domain will nevertheless remain in the reserved names list so that in case the registration lapses, the domain will not be released into the available pool, but will require the same approval process to be registered.

IV) The Registry will maintain an ongoing process for adding and updating governmental reserved names as they are demanded by governments, public authorities or IGOs.

In accordance with Specification 5 of the New gTLD Registry Agreement, the registry operator must initially reserve all geographic names at the second level, and at all other levels within the TLD at which the registry operator provides for registrations.

In accordance with Specification 5 of the New gTLD Registry Agreement, the registry operator will initially reserve all qualified geographic names at the second level, and at all other levels within the TLD at which the registry operator provides for registrations. The Registry will compile and establish a comprehensive master list of all qualified geographic names and place them into the Reserved Names list. Names on this reserved list will not be accepted for general registrations from the registry system.

The following explains the system behaviour for reserved names:
- regular domain create commands to reserved names will be rejected
- domain check commands will also return as unavailable for registration
- Whois queries for reserved names that are not activated will receive responses indicated that they are reserved
- Whois queries for reserved names that are activated will receive responses similar to other registered domains
- reserved names that are not activated will not appear in the DNS
- reserved names that are activated will be delegated in the DNS

Furthermore, the Registry will actively participate in the development of appropriate process and policies for governments, public authorities or IGOs to challenge abuses of names with national or geographic significance. As an important stakeholder in the Registry, DotAsia Organisation (through Namesphere) will be supporting the efforts as well. DotAsia has been a pioneer of protective measures for new gTLDs, especially in its handling of governmental reserved names and its engagement with different stakeholders to develop rapid suspension policies, which provided part of the genesis of what is now standardized for new gTLDs as the URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension) process. Similar administrative processes may be explored and developed for supporting challenge processes for abuses of names with national or geographic significance.