LOS ANGELES — The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) has announced that Epoch, CAM4 and Gamma Entertainment as its featured sponsors for the month of November.
Each month, ASACP highlights a selection of companies that exhibit a strong commitment to corporate responsibility by keeping kids safer in their daily digital lives, through self-regulation and proactive measures that help prevent minors’ access to age-restricted materials.
ASACP’s Executive Director Tim Henning said the association’s featured sponsors show that adult entertainment and online child protection can easily coexist, and notes that “our featured sponsors not only do their part to protect children directly, but indirectly through their support of ASACP, demonstrating the comprehensiveness of their commitment.”
“Because these companies can directly impact the safety of children’s daily digital lives, they are in a unique position to leverage their leadership to proactively benefit parent’s child protection efforts,” Henning said. “ASACP’s featured sponsors not only do their part to protect children but through their support of the association, enable its many vital services.
“ASACP’s featured sponsors show that proactive self-regulation combined with parental oversight, can make all the difference when it comes to keeping children safe online and further proves the professional adult entertainment industry truly does care a great deal about these very important issues,” Henning added. “Through their industry leadership, they set an example for other companies to follow.”
Epoch
A founding platinum sponsor that has supported ASACP for more than 15 years, Epoch is an IPSP enabling merchants to process transactions online and through mobile devices, accepting global payments for digital products and services, while earning a reputation for legitimacy and oversight of client web properties in the process.
Epoch takes an active, two-pronged approach to child protection. First, by ensuring that its services are not used by illegal websites selling materials depicting underage performers; and secondly, by providing dedicated service to the association’s Advisory Committee, which helps set the responsible standards and practices for legitimate adult entertainment and other companies. Epoch also provides the boardroom facilities for ASACP meetings, as well as other tangible assets.
Epoch’s responsible corporate philosophy puts people (including children) first, exemplifying the type of industry-leading company that makes up ASACP’s most valued sponsors.
CAM4
An ASACP title sponsor whose support extends back to 2011, CAM4 is vigilant about online child protection, due to its operation of live webcam/video chat sites, where minors not only attempt to access these sites but by misrepresenting their age, attempt to become paid performers. The global nature of this business (with varying documentation in different jurisdictions) and the physical separation between the company and its contractors, make it a daunting proposition to ensure that performers, let alone viewers are of a legal age.
Because of these challenges, ASACP offers a stringent set of best practices tailored to the specific needs of live cam site operators, which CAM4 benefits from. CAM4 takes additional measures such as the use of the RTA label to block children from its site: illustrating a caring, proactive approach to keeping children safe.
These steps also include a warning page overlay that notifies viewers that no CP is present on the site and that anyone posting or seeking underage material would be reported to authorities, with the company aiding in the prosecution of these users — sending a clear message that it will not tolerate children accessing or being displayed on the CAM4 site.
Gamma Entertainment
An ASACP corporate sponsor that has supported the association since 2006, Montreal-based Gamma Entertainment illustrates the commitment that the adult entertainment industry’s most prominent players make towards keeping children out of and away from adult entertainment.
According to the company, Gamma has grown from a home-based business with a single website to become a major force in the adult industry, boasting nearly 60 full-time employees. Gamma attributes its growth to the use of cutting-edge technology and adherence to four basic principles: honesty, respect, reliability and an up-front way of doing business, as the bedrock of its success.
Gamma demonstrates its leadership by using the RTA website meta-label to protect its sites and by donating rack space for two ASACP-owned servers located in the Gamma data center — providing useful material and technical support, as well as financial aid for the association.
“From online billing to live cams to premium adult content companies, ASACP’s featured sponsors encompass many market segments,” Henning concluded. “This shows that everyone has a role to play in keeping children safe from age-inappropriate material — and spotlights the companies that step up to that leadership role.”
To learn how your company can help protect itself by protecting children, email tim@asacp.org.
