LOS ANGELES — The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) has announced its Featured Sponsors for April, 2014, in recognition of the leading companies that continue to take a stand in the war to protect children online.
The organization’s Sponsor Recognition Program honors the providers of adult-oriented content and related services that have shown their responsibility by supporting the association’s mission over the years.
For April, ASACP recognizes Eros Guide, Swingers Date Club, The European Summit and Actually Helping.
Eros Guide, a Corporate Sponsor since 2006, through its the Eros Guide to Escorts and BDSM, presents one of the world's largest listings of erotic entertainers — including photos and contact information for escorts, massage, BDSM performers, exotic dancers, tantric practitioners and more; across more than 45 cities in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and beyond.
Because of the unique nature of Eros Guide, the company has a focus on ensuring that minors are not accessing its site or services; including using a warning page, plus technical measures to prevent minors’ access via enhanced parental controls.
Swingers Date Club’s international swingers’ dating site and an ASACP Corporate Sponsor since 2008, boasts a membership of more than 3 million adults around the globe, who are seeking intimate connections with other like-minded individuals. Swingers Date Club takes protecting minors seriously, and helps in this fight by preventing minors from accessing its site by using the RTA (Restricted To Adults) label — and further protects visitors from unwanted exposure to sexually explicit imagery by not including this type of material on its home page.
The European Summit, an ASACP Corporate Sponsor since 2010, hosts Europe’s leading B2B conference for the online entertainment industries, bringing together top representatives from the affiliate, billing, casual dating, domain name, mobile technology, website and traffic service arenas.
While The European Summit is not in the adult entertainment content business, ASACP said it does attract many such operators, making it a prime venue for ASACP to deliver its message of corporate responsibility towards keeping children out of and away from adult entertainment — and has extended considerable hospitality to the association over the years — such as fundraisers and complimentary event amenities, illustrating the range of opportunities beyond direct financial support that companies have when it comes to helping ASACP.
Actually Helping, an ASACP Corporate Sponsor since 2012, is a merchant solutions provider with more than two decades of experience in guiding companies through the process of merchant account acquisition and the development of payment processing solutions, along with risk and compliance consulting, conversion and throughput analysis and holistic business approach strategies.
Bringing this level of expertise to ASACP is Actually Helping’s Mike Ackerman, who has served on the association’s Advisory Committee since 2012, providing an example of how a single person can make a huge difference, by devoting their time and energy towards what is the best solution for an adult-content friendly Internet that also protects the needs of children.
According to ASACP Executive Director, Tim Henning, the ongoing support received from these companies enable the association to continue operating its highly regarded CP Hotline, which allows concerned individuals to report suspected child pornography; as well as furthers the development of ASACP resources, such as the RTA website meta label that improves the accuracy of parental filtering tools.
“Today’s adult entertainment companies must take positive steps to protect their own business interests, which include keeping children out of and away from any age-restricted materials,” Henning explained. “Self-regulation such as using the RTA label, non-explicit ‘warning’ pages, and following ASACP’s Best Practices and Code of Ethics, forms a great foundation for this.”
He added, “By following the example set by ASACP’s Featured Sponsors, all adult media companies can help to make online child safety a reality. But realizing this laudable goal will only happen with the continuing financial, material and philosophical support of the adult entertainment industry at large.”