Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.
What did you do for a living before coming over to ASACP?
our role is to help and protect children
I've worked in radio and television pretty much my entire career. Before joining ASACP, I worked at Playboy Enterprises Inc, handling their affiliate sales and marketing division in Canada. I was with them for six years and really enjoyed the sales and marketing aspects of the job. I've had the chance to work with big corporations and understand all the ins and outs. I look forward to using this knowledge to help ASACP accomplish its mission and to once again demonstrate to mainstream that the adult industry is concerned about child protection.
What is the most difficult and/or challenging part of your job?
I think for now the most challenging part of my new role with ASACP would be educating the mainstream on what our organization is about. Yes, we are funded by the adult industry — however our role is to help and protect children.
What is the most rewarding part of working for ASACP?
The most rewarding part of working with ASACP is the cause; who doesn't want to help and protect children? It is extremely rewarding to know that we have people in the industry that believe in our goals and are willing to help us achieve it through becoming members and/or sponsors.
In your opinion are there things that the adult industry can do to improve its image and the way it is perceived by lawmakers and elected officials?
The most important thing that the industry can do to improve its image is to reinforce that it is the adult entertainment industry and that the content they create is for adults only. This can be accomplished by labeling websites with ASACP's "Restricted to Adults" (RTA) website label and by following the best practices recommended by ASACP. Elected officials who are against the adult industry try to feed on parents' fears that the industry is targeting children; as an ASACP sponsor or member you can demonstrate your commitment to protecting children.
Do you think that more/new laws are needed in the fight against child pornography or have we reached the limit of what can be accomplished through legislation?
There is some legislation currently in the works that could help, such as funding for Internet safety education, or making it easier to report and combat child pornography. Right now one of the greatest barriers to stopping child pornography is the fear that if you report it you could be held liable for viewing it even accidentally. There also is legislation that is simply ineffective in terms of protecting children, and really is just a blatant attack against the adult industry. Attacking the adult industry under the guise of protecting children has been a tactic used in D.C. for quite a while. Throughout the years ASACP has helped to address many of these attacks and even countered them by establishing a quick, free and internationally recognized website label for adult content — RTA. Now ASACP is establishing itself in D.C. as a go-to resource to help lawmakers create meaningful legislation that can really protect children. This will require a lot more of ASACP Executive Director Joan Irvine's time. While she is in D.C., I will be working on getting the sponsors and members we need to finance and support this work. The bottom line is that we can't do any of this without the adult industry's support. I encourage anyone who wants to know more about how they can help ASACP to contact me directly at ruby@asacp.org.
