Adult Sites Against Child Pornography executive director Joan Irvine thought it impressive enough that the Internet Hotline Providers in Europe Association (Inhope.org) accepted her attendance at their September 10 meeting, but she must have been even more pleased that Inhope not only accepted but enthused about what her group is trying to achieve.
"Developing strategies to combat illegal harmful content on the Internet is a complex global problem," said Inhope president Thomas Rickert after the conference. "This is most effective when we work together and share our knowledge and expertise. It is exciting to learn more about the work of ASACP and their initiatives to protect children."
With a little help from FlashCash and Python, who helped Irvine finance her trip to Luxembourg for the conference, Irvine was able to tell the conference her major interest was in gleaning more information on how to improve ASACP operations, set up working relationships with other Internet hotlines, and how best to teach Inhope and its supporters how the adult Internet is positioned singularly enough to fight child porn.
"It is important that ASACP keeps informed about what is being done by the various organizations on an international basis," Irvine said in an official post-conference statement. "The adult industry needs representation at these meetings since many of the EU decisions may directly affect our businesses. Plus these groups need to be aware that the professional adult site industry is all about providing adult entertainment to consenting adults and is as against child pornography as they are."
Irvine was unavailable for further comment as this story went to press. But she also took part in the Inhope September 12 Safer Internet Consultation Day conference. She said the European Union's Safer Internet Action Plan, the focus of that conference, is part of a policy group at the EU level aiming to deal with child porn and other "harmful content" on international networks.
The conference focused on the parts numerous groups – Internet service providers, regulators, mobile network operators, law enforcement, software makers, families and educators, and activist groups such as hers – could play in fighting child porn and other such content, she said.
