The Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography is made up of financial institutions, Internet industry leaders and child protection agencies working together to eliminate commercial child pornography. Founding members of the coalition include AOL, American Express, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Discover, Visa, Wells Fargo and Yahoo.
ASACP CEO Joan Irvine and Director of Compliance and Technology Tim Henning attended the June 17 meeting of the coalition. Topics for the meeting included accomplishments and challenges with speakers from AOL, MasterCard, Microsoft and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In addition, the meeting discussed Canadian efforts to fight child exploitation.
"The Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography believes that in order to stop child pornography you need to stop the flow of money that makes CP a profitable enterprise for criminals," Irvine said. "ASACP has been an important part of the fight against CP and it is thanks to the support of the adult entertainment industry that we have been able to accomplish what we have."
Henning, who has been a part of the Analytics Working Group since the coalition’s inception, was invited to join the Technology Challenges Working Group.
In D.C., Irvine also met with senior staff members from the offices of Sens. John Kerry, Lisa Murkowski, Sheldon Whitehouse and Joe Biden. Irvine commended Sens. Murkowski and Whitehouse for declaring June as Internet Safety Month and discussed the award winning RTA "Restricted to Adults" website label.
Founded in 1996, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection is a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP also works to help parents prevent children from viewing age-inappropriate material online.
