(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) was in Washington D.C. last week participating in the semi-annual meeting of the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography.

The Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography is a group of the world’s most prominent financial institutions, internet industry leaders, and child protection agencies working together with the shared goal to eliminate commercial child pornography. Founding members of the coalition include AOL, American Express, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Discover, Visa, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo among others. ASACP has been an active member of the coalition and its Analytics Working Group since the coalition’s inception in early 2006.

ASACP’s Executive Director Joan Irvine traveled to Washington, DC for the November 13th meeting of the coalition. On the agenda was a discussion of accomplishments and challenges with speakers from PayPal, Mastercard, Global Payments Direct, and Microsoft. Also on hand was the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help to outline the 2008 priorities.

"ASACP’s online CP reporting hotline has been around for over a decade and we have learned a lot; therefore, we always have a lot to contribute," said Irvine. "I am always warmly greeted with appreciation for ASACP’s diligent reporting to the coalition and am reminded of the absolute need to work together as a community if we are to stop the sexual exploitation of children. Of course our ability to contribute to this process is due to the support of the Adult Entertainment Industry and I make sure this is known to all involved." While in D.C. Irvine also met with senior staff members from the offices of Senator John McCain, Representative Linda Sanchez, and Representative Melissa Bean. Irvine commended Rep. Melissa Bean’s focus on educating parents on how to protect their children. However, Irvine expressed concern that McCain’s Safe Act of 2007 would likely overburden small hosting/ISP companies with more regulations on how they need to monitor for child pornography or be in violation of the law. There is no need for this since law abiding companies already monitor for CP. In addition, data from ASACP’s hotline shows that it is usually either larger mainstream free hosting companies or hosting companies in Russia where most of the commercial CP sites are hosted. Representative Linda Sanchez on the other hand is working on legislation that would make it easier to report child pornography. This in turn would be of great benefit in stopping the sexual exploitation of children online and ASACP applauds Sanchez’s efforts.

In December Irvine will be back in D.C. to attend the Family Online Safety Institute’s (FOSI) annual conference. Formerly known as the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), Irvine plans to inform attendees of the industry support for the development of the Restricted to Adults (RTA) website label/meta-tag.

Founded in 1996, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP also works to help parents prevent children from viewing age- inappropriate material online. Companies and individuals interested in supporting ASACP may go to www.ASACP.org for more information on how to get involved.