ASACP Clarifies Its Neutral Position on .XXX

[JoanASACP]

ASACP CLARIFIES ITS NEUTRAL POSITION ON .XXX

Los Angeles - (June 9, 2005) – The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) neither approves nor disapproves of .xxx. In 2003, ASACP was approached by ICM Registry to support .xxx. The ASACP Advisory Council decided that such support was not within the ASACP mission; therefore, ASACP does not take a position on the concept of .xxx.

ASACP works with other associations such as Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) to help them be more effective in their efforts in the battle against child pornography. In fact, last month, ASACP launched cpHotline.org with DCIA’s P2P Patrol (http://www.asacp.org/press/pr050305.html).

If ICANN approves .xxx, ASACP would finalize a service agreement with ICM Registry/ International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) for the use of cphotline.org. In addition, since IFFOR plans to contribute to various child protection associations, ASACP would accept such a contribution.

On May 17, 2004, ASACP posted the following letter (http://forum.icann.org/lists/stld-rfp-xxx/msg00061.html) “applauding IFFOR and ICM Registry's initiative to integrate tools and technology for finding and reporting child pornography websites into their proposed registry application.”

“ASACP (asacp.org) is the organization that helps the adult site industry make a difference in the battle against child pornography. ASACP recognizes sexual child abuse as a heinous crime committed against children. As a major deterrent to such abuse, ASACP was formed in 1996 and is dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP also provides a self-regulatory vehicle for its membership through a Code of Ethics that promotes the protection of children through responsible, professional business practices. Over 4,700 adult sites have joined our cause in raising awareness about this subject.

ASACP investigates and assists the F.B.I. and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in enforcing anti-child pornography laws against thousands of child pornography sites. To date, ASACP has received and reviewed over 100,000 reports of suspect child pornography, of which more than 25,000 valid child pornography sites have been reported to the F.B.I and NCMEC.

ASACP has been in negotiations with the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) and ICM for it to serve as a hotline for reviewing reports of suspected child pornography and to carry out the secondary monitoring of .xxx sites for child pornography.

I applaud IFFOR and ICM Registry's initiative to integrate tools and technology of finding and reporting child pornography websites into their proposed registry application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

I also support the online adult industry developing their own credible business practices in conjunction with other impacted stakeholders and support the IFFOR initiative to create a line of communication between the adult industry and the global community.”

“I am surprised that people are attacking ASACP for potentially providing the use of cpHotline.org to IFFOR. Plus, this has been public information for over a year” said Joan Irvine, executive director of ASACP. “When people asked, I told them ASACP’s position and the potential for the service agreement. I will be attending Cybernet Expo (http://www.cybernetexpo.com) in San Diego next week and will be on the "Hot Issues and Problems in the Adult Internet" seminar on Tuesday, June 14th at 1:45 pm. If anyone has additional questions, please feel free to contact me.”


The ASACP mission is to help battle child pornography on the Internet. It provides a child pornography (CP) reporting hotline. ASACP provides a self-regulatory vehicle for its members through a Code of Ethics that promotes the protection of children through responsible, professional business practices (http://www.asacp.org/bestpractices.html). Also, it offers the benefit to its members of monitoring traffic to their sites, which proves to government agencies that these sites are in no way involved with CP. Both of these efforts are progressing very well with the implementation of a new technology system over the last two years.

For further information visit the ASACP site (www.asacp.org) or contact Joan Irvine at joan@asacp.org.