LOS ANGELES — The ASACP has announced its successful participation in two key meetings that it believes will “help to shape the future of the Internet for digital media publishers and consumers in the U.K. and beyond.”
ASACP’s Director of European Outreach, Vince Charlton, attended the ParentZone launch of the PitDA (Parenting in the Digital Age) initiative, held at the House of Commons in London last month, where online child protection was the leading topic among British lawmakers, parents and other stakeholders, such as ASACP.
Charlton also recently attended the Westminster eForum Keynote Seminar, “Childhood and the Internet — Safety, Education and Regulation,” in London.
The Westminster Forum is part of an ongoing program of seminars and discussions and was attended by key players such as Claire Perry MP (advisor to the U.K. Prime Minister) John Carr (the Secretary of the U.K. Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety), Pete Johnson from the ATVOD and Adam Kinsley, BskyB’s director of policy.
“The two U.K. sessions provided ASACP with a further opportunity to maintain and develop key relationships with those parties involved in the U.K.’s online child protection arena and to help promote the adult entertainment industry as a credible stakeholder in these discussions,” Charlton reported.
“A key message coming out of the discussions was that there is no wish to go down the route of censoring or blocking online adult content, but simply to get the industry to self-regulate to ensure such content remains in the hands of adults and not children — without the need for further government intervention,” Charlton continued.
He noted that ATVOD again stated its intention to aggressively pursue those adult companies based outside of, but selling into the U.K. market, to implement age verification protocols for U.K. IP addresses.
Charloton concluded, “The online adult entertainment industry will need to address these key issues if it wants to sell into the U.K., and in all probability, into the European markets. ASACP is now in a position not only to influence decision makers, but also to ensure that the regulator’s messages are clearly conveyed to the industry.”
ASACP Executive Director Tim Henning congratulated Charlton, saying, “Vince once again proved why he deserved this year’s ASACP Service Recognition Award, by enabling ASACP to have a place at the table where policies affecting the global Internet landscape for all digital media companies are being developed.”
For more information about ASACP, contact Henning at tim@asacp.org .
