Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009    Text size: 

The Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography (FCACP) is a group of prominent financial institutions, Internet industry leaders, and child protection agencies working together with the stated goal of eliminating commercial child pornography. Founding members of the coalition include AOL, American Express, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Discover, Visa, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo.

Henning participated in one of the FCACP’s working groups in Washington, D.C. during the June 18 meeting. The agenda included a discussion of accomplishments, challenges, and the international efforts to fight child exploitation.

"Child pornography is a very profitable enterprise for criminals, which is why The Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography was created in order to stop the flow of money from CP," Henning said. "We are definitely making important strides in stopping the child pornography distribution network from using adult sites as a means to obtain money via credit cards.

"In 2003, ASACP was able to implement a very robust technical infrastructure. This in turn made ASACP more advanced in its capacity to alert sponsors and members if their sites are being abused by illegal affiliates that sell CP," Henning said. "In combination with ASACP’s child pornography reporting hotline and the diligence and support of the adult industry, we are making things very difficult for criminals trying to profit off of commercial child pornography, 90 percent of which comes from Eastern European Bloc countries. It is very important for the adult industry to remain vigilant in its fight against the sexual exploitation of children; however, by working together we are making significant progress.” Founded in 1996, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP also works to help parents prevent children from viewing age-inappropriate material online.