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 in the earlier years of the digital age.
While this process has been painful, the consolidation and clearing of competition has left a cadre of “serious” international 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.
As the adult entertainment industry’s leading trade association, ASACP’s business is as much about protecting your business as it is about protecting children.
Serious digital adult entertainment 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 beginning to pay 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 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 self-regulation is heard in North America, throughout the European Union, and beyond.
A leading voice in online child protection for nearly 19 years, ASACP is the only child protection 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 and is proactive in keeping minors away from their content through the use of ASACP’s RTA (Restricted To Adults) labeling system.
With an eye on the future and its global mission, ASACP will once again be engaging business leaders in Barcelona, Spain and through a series of meetings will be enhancing its continuing expansion into the European Union with its message of child protection on behalf of the adult entertainment industry. The benefits of this activism are tangible and revealing, however, providing a worthwhile return on ASACP’s substantial investment in travel and event attendance.
One of the areas in which ASACP’s global outreach is paying off is in helping shape, and to better understand, the world’s differing views on the acceptability and definition of “underage” content. Despite some occasional cultural differences between the world’s societies over what constitutes the legal age of consent for such depictions, the message that children have no place in adult entertainment is being embraced by growing numbers of companies around the globe, due in part to the efforts of ASACP.
For example, several Eastern European countries have long been cited as notoriously prolific sources of illegal CP; while other nations on the continent allowed legal content production featuring performers as young as 16 years of age — complicating the situation for online adult companies working in an “18 plus” world…
Increased awareness of the situation by pan-European companies and other marketers has led to more emphasis on productions involving older teen models, even in locations where younger models may be legally employed. Document checking is also much more common now, regardless of where production is taking place; as foreign companies make a good faith effort to comply with the U.S. 18 U.S.C. § 2257 age-verification and recordkeeping law.
The European Summit, held in Spain, is known as one of Europe’s leading B2B conferences for the online entertainment industries. The Summit’s backers waived the registration fee for ASACP to attend as well as providing hotel accommodations, allowing ASACP the opportunity to spread awareness of its mission to a diverse, global audience made up of Eastern and Western Europeans, along with Americans, Canadians and other entrepreneurs from around the world.
ASACP also recently attended AEVC. The Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention (AEVC) is an exciting four-day event that brings together thousands of adult entertainment enthusiasts and industry professionals from around the world, into one 3D Virtual World. The event is produced by RedLightCenter.com and allows ASACP a cost-effective way of reaching a global audience.
ASACP with an eye on the future looks forward to the event, because it shows a glimpse of the world to come. ASACP has attended AEVC since its inception and have seen it grow, attracting a diverse audience that includes both adult entertainment companies and consumers. This allows the association to reach not only the producers of adult-oriented materials, but the parents who are ultimately responsible for their children’s online usage.
With rapid advances in virtual reality underway and products now coming on to the market, there is a new digital realm where concerns for children are evolving. It is difficult for parents and others to keep track of the latest advances and how they are used — and misused. Any technologies that increase online usage increase the challenges for child protection. By staying abreast of the cutting edge, ASACP is better able to craft relevant policies and Best Practices that guide stakeholders and keep children free from exploitation. AEVC’s promoters have graciously provided ASACP with a virtual booth where staff will be available to chat and answer questions.
These generous corporate donations enable the association to leverage its limited financial resources, so that a larger percentage of revenues may be spent on its mission.
Having invested nearly 19 years in the fight against online child exploitation and in the development of progressive online child protection programs, ASACP is now looking to the future and its ongoing mission, grounded in the context of its past: a mission that is needed more now than ever before — and which can only be accomplished through your support.
ASACP is the only organization that bridges the necessity of online child safety issues with the needs of legitimate adult entertainment business owners and the noted concerns of international regulators and lawmakers an effort which reaps continued rewards for all stakeholders.
For more information regarding ASACP, sponsorship opportunities and how your business can help, please contact tim@asacp.org.
About ASACP
Founded in 1996, ASACP is a non-profit organization dedicated to online child protection. ASACP is comprised of two separate corporate entities, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection and the ASACP Foundation. The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is a 501(c) (4) social welfare organization. ASACP manages a membership program that provides resources to companies in order to help them protect children online. The ASACP Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. The ASACP Foundation battles child pornography through its CP Reporting Hotline and helps parents prevent children from viewing age-restricted material online with its Restricted To Adults (RTA) website label (www.rtalabel.org). ASACP has invested nearly 19 years in developing progressive programs to protect children, and its relationship in assisting the adult industry’s child protection efforts is unparalleled. For more information, visit www.asacp.org.
