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ASACP’S
CHANGING OF THE GUARD - Joan Irvine Named First Executive Director
By Tracy Williams
When
my hero, awe-inspiring editor Tom Hymes, woke up from one of his
late-morning naps, wiped the drool from his chin, and gave me a
story to do on Adult Sites Against Child Pornography (ASACP), I
thought it would be a snap to knock out the required words about
such a well-known and well-established entity. After all, everyone
who’s anyone within the adult online space already knows all
there is to know about ASACP, right?
Nope, that’s not necessarily the truth these days. There’s
a whirlwind of change in the air and it’s bound to affect
every Website operator linked to www.asacp.org, and bound to interest
anyone with an opinion on the acceptability of presenting legal
content in a manner designed to attract Lolita-seeking surfers.
But first, a few brief paragraphs on ASACP’s history, just
in case there actually is some lone Webmaster out there who isn’t
already familiar with the organization.
ASACP aims to represent the adult Internet community by accepting
reports of suspected child pornography, investigating such reports,
and reporting sites validated as genuine child porn to the U.S.
Customs Service and the FBI. Since the organization’s establishment
in 1996, ASACP has reviewed over 50,000 reports of suspect sites,
of which 25,800 are unique. As of this writing, more than 10,600
sites have been reported to governmental authorities, who have shut
down more than 6,100 of them.
"The idea for ASACP came to me during the early days of the
industry, back in 1996," says Alec Helmy, president of HELMY
Enterprises, which operates ASACP. "We were seeing increased
media coverage on the subject of online child pornography that seemed
to label our industry as the cause of the problem, which, as we
all agree - it is not. I felt that the adult industry would welcome
a channel for voicing its disapproval of such content.
"I recall surfing to learn more about the problem of online
child pornography and the ways to report it. To my surprise there
were very few, most of which didn't provide sufficient information.
I felt that this presented an opportunity to create a portal for
the purpose of reporting suspect sites and helping raise awareness
about the subject. The rest is history. As it turns out, the industry
really embraced the idea."
Earlier this year, Helmy came to the realization that the demand
for ASACP’s services was expanding beyond the point of what
his volunteer-based resources could support. What was needed was
a solution that would prevent any scaling back or stunting of the
organization’s growth while simultaneously allowing Helmy
and his staff to cut back on the number of hours they were committing
to the cause. What was needed was someone who could come in and
focus exclusively on the development and management of ASACP’s
growth.
Meet Joan Irvine.
"After meeting with Joan," says Helmy, "I was confident
that she was the candidate we had been looking for. She is a dynamic
self-starter who has the experience and vision necessary for ASACP
to continue its growth and mission."
As the first ever Executive Director of ASACP, Irvine has her work
cut out for her. "Alec has been funding this project for six
and a half years," says Irvine. "He’s been laboring
on behalf of his own commitment to combating child pornography.
He’s been paying, out of his own pocket, for somebody to review
all of the reported sites on a daily basis.
"In order to support the expansion and meet the growing demands
for ASACP’s services, ASACP needs to be run like a business.
Alec had wanted to turn ASACP into a non-profit organization in
order to show the government that we are going by their rules, and
in order to become a non-profit, we need to make sure that the industry
supports what we’re doing, that the industry does in fact
want us to keep doing the work we do because there are costs associated
with running a non-profit organization such as this."
To that end, Irvine has begun gathering corporate sponsorships in
order to help share the cost among the other interested parties
in the adult industry. Among the first to come aboard as sponsors
are Adult Revenue Service, MaxCash, Adam&Eve, the Free Speech
Coalition, XBiz, and AVN.
"Our organization is only as stroong as the industry support
it receives," said Irvine. "As the industry increasingly
participates in a concerted way, ASACP stands to be better able
to deflect some of the governmental pressure on our industry, and
that’s highly relevant especially in light of the Bush administration’s
increased focus on obscenity."
Helmy is betting on Irvine’s knowledge of and experience with
running an association as a business. "Most recently,"
says Irvine, "I worked at an association called VIC, the Virtual
International Community, which was an association supporting new
media and digital professionals. I served as the Vice President
of Membership there, putting together membership programs, and I
look forward to applying this experience when implementing a more
formalized business structure for ASACP."
But for all the people already familiar with the workings of ASACP,
there is an obvious question: If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Indeed, it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder why an organization
whose basic function is reviewing and reporting child pornography-containing
Websites - to ask why would such a straight-forward, singular mission
have any need to adopt a more sophisticated business structure?
The answer lies in understanding that combating displays of child
pornography online requires more battlefronts than the one used
for reporting suspect sites. True success requires stronger alliances
both within the adult industry and with mainstream organizations
outside of it.
"To combat child pornography, to become a broad-based association
of entities, is going to require developing a stronger code of ethics;
it is a process that needs to be industry-driven and that’s
why it will be developed by the advisory council," says Irvine.
"To that end, we’re forming an advisory council made
up of prominent industry members - so far we have Aly Drummond,
Samantha Lee, Bill Lyons, Gary Kremen, of course Alec (Helmy), and
we’re looking forward to including representatives from billing
companies as well. When you’re here trying to do it all, you
have a tendency to be too sheltered and you need to be out there
getting additional input.
"Once we’ve enhanced our code of ethics, we’ll
be announcing a more formalized membership program. We’re
going to be adding a requirement that membership sites be reviewed.
Some specific changes to the code of ethics are that member sites
will not imply that child pornography is on their site, and that
they will not do business, including affiliate programs, with companies
that are questionable in their policies relating to child pornography.
"Other prospective changes to the code are stronger and more
progressive. In the past, we haven’t had the resources to
actually go and take a look at our member sites to make sure they
were meeting the code of ethics. We haven’t been active in
self-regulating the sites in that way, but that’s about to
change.
"When we have our advisory council, we’re going to see
how far to go. Do we go as far as the restrictions VISA puts on
the credit card processors? Will we not allow sites that use certain
key words - including ‘Lolita,’ ‘preteen,’
‘kids’ - even if the site’s actual content is
legal? It’s going to be a real interesting conversation about
how much of that we’re going to be incorporating into our
code of ethics. The new policies may reduce the number of membership
sites that we have, but if it slows down, it would be slowing down
for the right purpose.
"It’s very important as I’m developing and putting
together these programs to have [industry] input. If I’m not
active in seeking it, they’re definitely going to let me know
anyway. I have not met people who were shy or did not have their
own opinion about how to deal with child pornography, and I happen
to like hearing all those opinions.
"Currently, we’re in a transition phase where we are
becoming better able to devote more time and energy to helping the
industry make a difference in stopping the proliferation of child
pornography. I am looking forward to working closely with the industry
as ASACP moves forward."
"To
combat child pornography, to become a broad-based association of
entities, is going to require developing a stronger code of ethics;
it is a process that needs to be industry-driven." - Joan Irvine,
Executive Director, ASACP
SOURCE>AVNONLINE.COM
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