ASACP: What it Does, How it Works & What it Can Do for You
by Kath Blackwell
 ASACP (www.asacp.org) has been making the headlines all over the adult industry as of late. The 6-PLUS year old company has been around longer than most of the webmasters who work and thrive on the Internet, yet many webmasters don't even have a clue what it is and what it does. Fortunately, ASACP has Joan Irvine - and Joan is here to change all that. I was fortunate to meet Joan in person this year, and she graciously granted Klixxx an interview to find out more about what she is doing to help ASACP come into the forefront of the adult industry. If you think of ASACP as "that child porn program" and nothing more - think again. ASACP is here to help the adult industry move forward into a whole new plane of existence - and many of the big movers and shakers are already working hard to support it and help it to grow.
KATH: Can you give our readers who may not have heard about ASACP a little background information - like what the organization does and how it got started?
JOAN: About six-and-a-half years ago, Alec Helmy noticed that there was a lot of media attention on child pornography issues, and that the media was equating child pornography with adult sites - to adult pornographic content. He started doing some research and was unable to find a place where you could report child pornography sites to - to have them removed. He realized that he had discovered a good opportunity to provide something to the adult industry so that the "powers that be" could report these sites and not have anything to do with child pornography. ASACP stands for "Adult Sites Against Child Pornography" and was created to be a place for adult webmasters to report child pornography or simulated child pornography sites that they discover while working on the Web.
Over the last few years, a lot of people have volunteered to help out, but mostly Alec has funded someone to review sites all on his own. What has happened however, is that it started getting very large. By the time I came on board we were getting about 60 sites reported each day. Alec realized that in order to become more effective he had to bring someone on to manage ASACP so it could grow and become more effective.
KATH: What is your position with ASACP and what do you do there?
JOAN: I am the first executive director, and my goal is to transition ASACP into a true association, meaning that we will become a non-profit organization. Right now it's an organization that became a corporation recently, and it's been funneled off into its own entity. Currently, our goals are to expand and become more visible to both the adult industry as well as to establish relationships with other mainstream associations - and with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
KATH: A lot of press has been out there lately surrounding ASACP and the new efforts and advances that have been made since you joined the organization. Can you tell our readers a little bit about those changes and what they mean to ASACP - and to the industry as a whole?
JOAN: In order to move forward, we need to obtain both support "in general" from the industry, as well as financial support due to certain changes that we are anticipating, which - to be blunt - do not come for free. So, we took a long look at the structure, and how we could expand the mission at ASACP, and the first way we found was to obtain sponsorships. So we went out to the larger companies and have obtained initial sponsorships to help fund our growth. Things like updating the Web site, a booth planned at Internext Expo in January 2003 - these funds help us to get out there and talk to others about our mission. What this support demonstrates to the rest of the adult industry, is that we have the large companies behind us - and it shows the growth that we're working towards.
We will be featured in the major industry publications [including this article for Klixxx Magazine] in the coming months, and I have been so pleased at the response of the industry to help. When you come on board and the mission has been around but it's never before been asking for money, it helps when everyone comes forward and supports you. I must say that it has not been as tough as I had expected, and it has forced us to move forward on our plans much more quickly because of the help we've received.
PART TWO: ASACP - Moving Toward a Better Future
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