As renewed signs of economic vigor are beginning to warm the financial outlook of media companies around the world, the online adult entertainment industry is struggling to redefine itself — combating the damage done by several years of economic downturn and technological tardiness, piracy and politics — damage that served to deflate industry coffers nearly as quickly as it had filled them a decade ago.
While this process has been painful, the consolidation and clearing of competition has left a cadre of “serious” companies — battered, but better than before — focused on the core values that attract and retain customers; building bridges and their businesses, rather than burning through prospects as quickly as possible and falsely feeling safe in assuming that there will always be another person to sell to.
Recently, ASACP engaged in a series of events and meetings designed to enhance its continuing expansion into the European Union.
Serious adult operators, dedicated to excellence and committed to the long haul, have been investing in their infrastructure and marketing efforts; spending money to build and protect their businesses, ready to capitalize on the global economic thaw now underway — and these efforts are paying off.
The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is part of this rebirth.
As the adult entertainment industry’s leading trade association, ASACP’s business is as much about protecting your business as it is about protecting the children. This duality of missions allows ASACP to keep children out of and away from adult entertainment, while ensuring that this message of responsible adult industry selfregulation is heard in Sacramento, in Washington, throughout the European Union, and beyond.
A leading voice in online child protection for the past 15 years, ASACP is the only organization to work directly with legitimate providers of legal adult entertainment. While other voices have been and will continue to be heard, ASACP has consistently carried the message that the adult industry does not support illegal child pornography.
Recently, ASACP engaged in a series of events and meetings designed to enhance its continuing expansion into the European Union.
As part of this effort, Interim Director Tim Henning traveled to London to attend a series of events, including a meeting of the Adult Industry Trade Association (AITA), where Henning discussed how supporting ASACP is not only the right thing to do, but is a proven way of serving adult business interests; and the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) European Conference, which included discussions about privacy, data retention, mobile usage, digital citizenship, research findings and public policy developments in the U.S., U.K. and Europe.
These two events provided a broad range of opportunities for ASACP to deliver its message to a diverse audience, including lawmakers, while learning about the concerns being explored by other groups, such as other hotlines, enabling the association to both help and benefit from these other child protection advocacy groups.
Henning also connected directly with adult industry entrepreneurs at the informal XBIZ.net London Gathering and attended an ASACP EU Advisory Council Meeting, to explore strategies for growing the association and improving its global efficacy.
Eurowebtainment conference attendees in Majorca, Spain, also learned about ASACP and its work on behalf of the adult entertainment industry, thanks to the event’s sponsors, which promoted the association on its website, in its event show guide, and via flyers in the show’s attendee gift bags. These promotions leverage the association’s budget, since as a nonprofit organization ASACP is unable to attend every conference. ASACP will, however, attend the upcoming XBIZ Summit in Chicago, offering a booth where event attendees can learn about the association’s latest initiatives.
Supported by sponsor and membership fees as well as by donations to its Foundation, ASACP is at the forefront of online child-protection services that also protect businesses. Companies interested in learning about the variety of ways in which they can support ASACP in its mission should contact Tim Henning at tim@asacp.org.
