Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection

The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is an American non-profit organization that fights Internet child pornography^[1] and works to help parents suffering from paranoia about porn sites.^[2]

Most of ASACP's funding comes from sponsoring companies in the online adult entertainment industry. There are hundreds of ASACP member companies, comprising thousands of websites. All ASACP member sites are required to comply with the group's code of ethics and give a substantial amount of money to censor the Internet.

Overview

ASACP was founded in 1996 by Alec Helmy, founder and president of XBIZ, Publisher of Adult Industry News & Information as a hotline where webmasters and web surfers could report child pornography on the internet. ASACP’s online child pornography reporting hotline receives thousands of reports per month. ASACP investigates to determine the hosting, billing, IP address, ownership, and linkage of suspected child pornography sites. ASACP then forwards information to law enforcement, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and hotlines in other countries.^[3] Sites can also be shut down by reporting them to web hosts and domain name registrars. In April 2007, the organization announced that their online reporting system had registered its 200,000th report from internet users.^[4]

In late 2006, ASACP launched the RTA ("Restricted to Adults") website label. RTA is a meta tag that webmasters place in the page headers of adult websites to better enable parental filtering.^[5] On June 22, 2007 ASACP held a press conference to officially announce the Restricted to Adults - RTA Website Label. A video which includes highlights from the press conference and comments from Free Speech Advocate Greg Piccionelli and Wicked Pictures adult film star, writer, and director Stormy Daniels is available on ASACP's YouTube Channel.

In March 2008, ASACP released a public service announcement (PSA) featuring Daniels for the Restricted to Adults - RTA Website Label. Daniels has appeared in such films as The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked-up, and the FX Network series Dirt. The RTA PSA features Daniels discussing the RTA website label and encouraging parents to use parental filtering software to protect children from viewing inappropriate content. The one-minute video is the first in what will become an ongoing series of PSAs produced by ASACP featuring different adult entertainment stars.

In June 2008, an article in the California Western Law Review highlighted ASACP’s and the U.S. adult entertainment industry's efforts to keep children safe. '"Untangling Child Pornography From the Adult Entertainment Industry: An Inside Look at the Industry's Efforts to Protect Minors" was published by Robert D. Richards, a professor of journalism and law, and Clay Calvert, a professor of First Amendment studies. Both teach at Pennsylvania State University and are involved in the university's Center for the First Amendment. The article provides a unique, in-depth insight into the burgeoning problem of child pornography and the efforts of the U.S. adult entertainment industry to keep children safe. The article focuses primarily on an in-person interview conducted with ASACP CEO Joan Irvine that took place in July 2007. Irvine discusses the difficulty the adult industry faces both in stopping politicians from linking mainstream adult entertainment to child pornography and in changing public perception about this conflation. Irvine also discusses the RTA "Restricted to Adults" label and Paul Cambria’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in regards to labeling. In addition Calvert and Richards interviewed several adult industry insiders including attorneys Gregory Piccionelli and Clyde DeWitt, Paul Fishbein of AVN (magazine) and Tom Hymes of XBIZ.^[6]

ASACP released its third PSA about the Restricted to Adults - RTA Website Label in August 2008. The PSA features Teravision President and adult actress Tera Patrick with her husband, musician and actor Evan Seinfeld. In the RTA PSA, Patrick and Seinfeld discuss the RTA website label and encourage parents to use web filtering software to protect children from viewing age-inappropriate content.

On August 19, ASACP CEO Joan Irvine was presented the 2008 Associations Make a Better World Award by the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership, Washington, DC, at their annual meeting in San Diego. The Associations Make a Better World Awards recognize associations that engage in compelling programs and activities that benefit communities in the United States and internationally in two categories: U.S./Developed Nations and Developing Nations. ASACP received the overall award in the U.S./Developed Nations category for its RTA website label.

See also

• Internet Watch Foundation
• International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children; combats child sexual exploitation, child pornography, and child abduction.

References

External links

• Official website
• RTA ("Restricted to Adults") Label Website
• ASACP's YouTube Channel

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Innocent Images National Initiative
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ): Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS)
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS): Child Pornography on the Internet (PDF Document)
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE): Cyber Crimes Center
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC): Exploited Child Unit (ECU)

• ECPAT International
• Take Parental Control - guide for parents on how to restrict or block inappropriate content on the Internet, on TV, in videogames, on cell phones and more.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - A Parent`s Guide to Internet Safety