A new article in the California Western Law Review highlights the U.S. adult entertainment industry's efforts to keep children safe.
"Untangling Child Pornography From the Adult Entertainment Industry: An Inside Look at the Industry's Efforts to Protect Minors" was published by Robert D. Richards, a professor of journalism and law, and Clay Calvert, a professor of First Amendment studies. Both teach at Pennsylvania State University and are involved in the university's Center for the First Amendment.
The article prominently features information from many industry insiders and leaders, including Joan Irvine, CEO of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection; Paul Fishbein, chairman of the board of directors of AVN; industry attorneys Gregory Piccionelli and Clyde Dewitt; and Tom Hymes, executive editor of XBiz.
The article provides in-depth insight into the growing problem of child pornography and the U.S. adult entertainment industry's efforts to keep children safe. In the article, Irvine discusses the difficulty the adult industry faces in stopping politicians from linking adult entertainment to child pornography and in changing the public's perception about this conflation.
Irvine also discusses the "Restricted to Adults" website label and attorney Paul Cambria's labeling-related testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
"There are so many misconceptions and erroneous assumptions about the adult entertainment industry, and this article, we believe, helps to correct some important ones," Calvert said. "In particular, the article makes it clear that the industry, with the important lead of ASACP, does not promote or otherwise have anything to do with the creation or distribution of child pornography. Indeed, the adult industry in southern California actively works against it."
According to Richards, the article "breaks new ground by demonstrating the vigorous efforts of the adult industry to keep minors away from adult content."
"The industry is so often unfairly criticized by academics who, by and large, are probably unaware of the RTA label and the good work of the ASACP," he added. "We hope the professors and academics who constantly blast the adult entertainment industry may now see things in a different light after reading this article."
"It is gratifying to finally see an article in a professional legal journal that is based on research by professors at Penn State University, which substantiates what ASACP and the industry has been stating for years: The adult entertainment industry is not involved in child pornography and does not want children to view their content," Irvine said. "We plan to share this research with legislators in both Sacramento and Washington, D.C., in hope that they will base future legislation on the reality that over 90 percent of the commercial child pornography is produced and distributed by organized crime in the Eastern Europe Bloc countries, not by the professional adult industry."
The article is available online in the LexisNexis and Westlaw legal databases, and in hard-copy form at all law libraries and law-school libraries that subscribe to the California Western Law Review.
