CYBERSPACE – Established in 1996, and formerly known as “Adult Sites Against Child Pornography,” ASACP announced its new name today, “Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection,” and relaunched its website at http://www.asacp.org.ASACP is a nonprofit organization at the forefront of battling child pornography on the internet. Citing that their hotline receives more than 5,000 reports of suspected child pornography per month, ASACP said the name change took place “to more effectively represent its members and nonprofit status, and work in harmony with government agencies and mainstream associations.” The name change also reflects the depth of its expanded mission of “Protecting Your Business By Protecting Children.”

In an interview today with Joan Irvine, executive director of ASACP, she told YNOT, “A lot of people in the industry told us that they did not like our name. People were also asking us to be more proactive in shutting questionable sites down. Only the FBI can do that. So we are going to be sending billing, hosting and domain registrar companies specific Red Flag reports. Working with them will be easier with the name ‘adult sites’ absent from our name in order to be more effective.”

ASACP recently implemented a compliance system developed by Brandon Shalton of Cydata Services to monitor Approved Members. Irvine added, “We are talking not just about child pornography but also child protection. This is an area that we feel in the next few years will fully demonstrate to government agencies that the adult industry is very interested in child protection overall, and will help provide online validation of its Approved Members and Sponsors status. We are one of the few associations that offer such a benefit to its members.”

The ASACP website also offers a section on parental guidelines filled with links to helpful information that is already out there on the Internet.

Joan Irvine can be reached at joan@asacp.org.