LOS ANGELES — The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) has announced its featured sponsors for the month of June. According to ASACP Executive Director Tim Henning, ASACP's featured sponsors exemplify corporate responsibility and self-regulation.
"The association's Sponsor Recognition Program honors those companies that have demonstrated a commitment to child protection that sets an example for their fellow businesses to follow," Henning said. "By doing so, these companies demonstrate to legislators and others that the adult industry is made up of a cadre of caring professionals and legitimate businesses set on doing the right thing."
Founded in 1996, ASACP is a non-profit organization dedicated to online child protection. To help its supporters protect children, ASACP offers a market-specific guide on best practices and a universal code of ethics that provides online businesses with basic guidance. And its Restricted To Adults (RTA) website meta label helps prevent a minor's access to adult-oriented websites and mobile apps.
This combination of education, information and tools is coupled with ASACP's internationally recognized Child Exploitation Hotline, which ASACP said "has processed more than one million reports since its inception, and which has an enviable record of success in combating illegal sites."
Honoring this month's featured sponsors, ASACP said it is recognizing MindGeek, Southern Charms and the European Summit "for their continued generous support of the association in its valiant fight to protect children by keeping them out of and away from adult-oriented materials."
ASACP said that Mindgeek, a platinum sponsor, "has generously supported the association since 2011" and that "MindGeek serves as an example of how today's top-tier digital media companies are committed to the cause of online child protection."
MindGeek VP Catherine Dunn said, "Families, guardians and business leaders all share a responsibility in ensuring children are not exposed to inappropriate content online. Everyone has a role to play, and we do our part by ensuring that age verification tools are an integral part of MindGeek's extensive portfolio of industry-leading websites as legally required so that only those who should enjoy our sites are able to."
ASACP described Southern Charms as "a valued ASACP title sponsor since 2003" and an "amateur porn powerhouse." According to ASACP, Southern Charms "takes pride in being a clean website that offers licensed, age-verified models with model releases on file for each depicted performer."
A Southern Charms representative said, "You will not find any obscene material (or any underage models) at all on Southern Charms. You will only find clean adult amateur fun. Please rest assured that if someone communicates to us that they are interested in underage pictures of models, we will report it to the appropriate authorities immediately."
ASACP described the European Summit as "an ASACP corporate sponsor since 2010" and "Europe's leading B2B conference for the online entertainment industries."
European Summit Organizer Andreas Bischoff said, "Having a young son myself, I understand the importance of protecting children online and the value of supporting organizations such as ASACP."
Henning said, "The generosity of all of our sponsors, members and contributors make our non-profit operation possible and fuel the continued success of our efforts. As ASACP continues to cope with a declining budget and increased responsibilities, it is vital that we receive such industry support if we are to carry on our mission, with our featured sponsors leading the way."
For more information on ASACP, visit their official website or follow them on Twitter.