A growing number of Adult Web surfers may be falling away from the Adult Net due to fear of the unknown – as in, unknowingly bumping into images of child porn and other illegal content, Adult Sites Against Child Pornography executive director Joan Irvine said October 14.
Irvine said her group has begun receiving more email communications expressing that alarm in recent weeks, at about the time ASACP itself received over 5,100 reports of suspected child porn on the Web which turned into 250 new child porn suspect sites reported to the FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and various European hotlines.
Said one such email: “I have been absolutely disgusted with what appears to be child porn that pops up simply from visiting random Adult links. I will never surf for porn on the Internet again. It’s simply become too dangerous.”
Said a second: “While surfing Adult sites, I have encountered pop-ups with what appears to be child pornography. With all the strict anti-child porn laws (which I fully support), how can the average citizen protect themselves?”
ASACP site reviewer and compliance manager Tim Henning said the group usually refers such surfers to an ASACP release, How to Safely Surf for Adult Entertainment and Avoid Child Pornography, as well as investigating the complaints raised in each such email.
A growing number of legitimate Adult entertainment companies have tightened up their terms of service, ASACP said. One has now included this clause: “any material which involves depictions of nudity or sexuality by an age inappropriate-looking performer (i.e. someone who looks younger than 18 years of age regardless of the person’s actual age), or by a performer who is portrayed or made to appear to be a person under the age of 18 years of age by virtue of the script, make-up, demeanor, costuming, setting, etc.”
Irvine said legitimate adult Webmasters should be very concerned about the fears raised in the aforesaid e-mails and cannot afford to ignore them.
“These perceptions are growing and it could threaten the reputation of the adult industry and cause the government to scrutinize the industry even more than it already is,” she warned. “Be careful of how your content ‘appears’ when it is reduced in size and know where your exit traffic is going.”
