As XBIZ previously reported, MIM President Robert Peters issued a 24-page missive in which he seeks to minimize the work done by ASACP, or Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, to protect children and its proactive response to congressional demands that the adult industry self-regulate.
Irvine provided XBIZ with the following response to the MIM essay, which was entitled "'Adult Industry' Is No Friend of Children or the Family, Despite ASACP Effort to Curb Child Abuse and Label Smut":
"It's frustrating when Bob Peters commends federal and state law enforcement agencies, ISPs, credit card companies, banks and nonprofits for finally working together to curb the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet' while condemning them for working with ASACP.
Why shouldn't they work with ASACP? ASACP has amazingly advanced child protection technology for a small association because of the support of the adult entertainment industry. It has spent the last 13 years using technology to develop tools to help protect children. We have a knowledgeable technology and forensic research director, Tim Henning. In fact, law enforcement and prosecutors consistently seek out Henning for his expertise, and he has been asked to be an expert witness.
ASACP has helped to shut down CP crime rings. In fact, I am very proud of what ASACP has accomplished especially with the international award-winning Restricted To Adults (RTA) label. In just over two years more than 4 million sites have voluntarily label with RTA and there are over 10 billion hits daily to pages labeled with RTA. Because of the support of ASACP sponsors, RTA is free to use.
I've never expected ASACP to be criticized for doing such a good job, receiving awards and being effective in our mission. Plus, if ASACP didn't exist, who would be working with the adult industry to develop standard methods to protect children online?
After almost seven years at ASACP, I am more aware than most of the horrific sexual abuse of children. There are some very sick people in the world, but there have always been some very sick people. Pedophilia and sexual child abuse has sadly always existed; in fact, it has gone on for centuries. This why my parents taught me not to talk with strangers, go near unfamiliar cars, or be alone with adults who were too friendly with children. Now these people have abused the Internet for their own purposes.
In the past eight years because of pressure of the religious right, the administration wasted billions of dollars attacking adult entertainment instead of focusing on really protecting children online. Hopefully when the new president goes through the budget line item by line item, he will see this waste and allocate money to the schools where children and parents can be taught to be good digital citizens.
Has our world changed because of the Internet and technology? Yes. Would I like to go back to the world of 'Father Knows Best?' At times, yes. But we need to deal with current reality. Adult entertainment should and will always exist. Sadly, there will always be sick people who will abuse children. So our job as responsible people is to work together to develop tools to help protect children and then provide the education for people to use those tools.
Mr. Peters produced a seemingly well-researched document and he has brought us a few valid points that ASACP will work on. However, as with any research, ASACP could find studies that would provide contradictory data to his point. But, ASACP's job is to develop technology to protect children, and I just hope that we can work together in our common mission to protect children online.
It should seem as no surprise that Morality In Media is not fond of the adult entertainment industry. However, I find it appalling that they would go to such extreme lengths to criticize the work that has been done to protect children online. People are often quick to say the reason the sexual exploitation of children exists is due to pornography and a lack of resources of law enforcement, however they fail to mention the hundreds of thousands of CP reports ASACP has processed that has benefited law enforcement and the great strides the adult industry has taken to protect children.
When ASACP brought Stormy Daniels to Washington, D.C., last spring for a press conference, her message was clear: kids do not watch me.
In her speech Stormy stated: "In addressing the issue of 'adults only' materials and its online viewing by minors, I have a very simple and short message to their parents: We do not want their business. I do not want children viewing my site or its adult only content. The adult industry as a whole doesn't want children's business. Please do not let your children view our content or our websites."
However MIM doesn't choose to mention that they choose to mention a quote we used discussing the lack of parents utilizing filtering. A quote we used to discuss the reason why we launched the Restricted To Adults website label public service announcement campaign. MIM fails to mention how we have gone on to create a YouTube channel with various videos encouraging parents to use filtering, and that the videos on the ASACP YouTube Channel have collectively received well over a million views.
Morality in Media seems to believe that by eliminating pornography, a multitude of society's ills would simply go away. What MIM fails to address is the root of the problem — why people commit sexual crimes. ASACP has been part of the solution when it comes to creating innovative technology to protect children online both through our CP reporting hotline and the Restricted To Adults website label. And ASACP will continue to do our part, proudly funded by the adult industry, to protect children — while MIM spends its time attacking people.
And MIM should take note, the largest growing production and distribution of child pornography is not on the Internet nor by criminals, but by minors via their cellphone; a practice known as sexting. According to Michelle Collins of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, of the 2,100 children the center has identified as victims of online porn, one-fourth initially sent the images themselves."