LOS ANGELES — ASACP is celebrating 30 years of operation, during which it has received over 1.3 million reports from web admins and the public about suspected child pornography.
Founded in August 1996 by XBIZ CEO Alec Helmy, the organization originally called Adult Sites Against Child Pornography changed its name in 2005 to the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection while keeping the ASACP acronym. This shift reflects its expanding mission and the industry’s ongoing commitment to child protection.
ASACP collects details such as the site’s IP address, hosting and billing providers, ownership, and links to other sites. It then sends verified “Red Flag” alerts to agencies like the FBI, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and European CSAM hotlines. Over the years, ASACP significantly upgraded its Tipline infrastructure, enabling it to gather more precise data on reports to help monitor the prevalence of CSAM and assess the success of its efforts to fight this serious crime.
The Tipline is supported by ASACP’s sister organization, the ASACP Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity. This organization also funds the Restricted To Adults (RTA) labeling program, which partners with content filtering software to offer parents, institutions, libraries, and schools free and effective protection against age-inappropriate content. Donations to the ASACP Foundation are tax-deductible for U.S. businesses and may also offer tax benefits to international operators.
Alongside its CSAM Reporting Tipline and RTA meta label, ASACP provides digital media companies with market-specific Best Practices, a formalized Code of Ethics, and tools such as a list of banned words and phrases commonly used in CSAM web searches. This list is available in 25 languages and functions as a simple plugin for adult search engines, tube sites, and other platforms that depend on user-generated content, helping scrub user inputs to filter out problematic content before it appears on their sites and providing proactive tools for businesses to protect children.
“ASACP’s success is rooted in its committed staff, including Executive Director Tim Henning, who has been part of ASACP since it was founded, and veteran Operations Director Erege Macis, who anchors the day-to-day business,” said a rep. “Fundraising Director Michelle Marriott, Systems Manager and Developer Tanguy De Courson, and longtime Digital Media Analyst and Writer Stephen Yagielowicz round out the team. The sacrifices made by this close-knit group are significant, especially given that their work often exposes investigators and others to the disturbing realities of CSAM and takes a heavy emotional toll.
“While the names have changed as businesses merged, evolved, or disappeared, the industry’s commitment to protecting children has remained remarkably consistent,” the rep added. “It is clear that ASACP’s message and mission of keeping children out of and away from adult entertainment continues to resonate with the stakeholders it directly impacts.”
ASACP maintains a relationship with the adult entertainment industry, actively participating in various events to share its expertise and resources. It fosters connections with industry leaders, regulators, and stakeholders by engaging in networking, panels, seminars, and workshops, while presenting its stance, strategies, and tools. These events span the globe and allow ASACP to reach decision-makers on the front lines of adult entertainment who are best able to take the steps necessary to protect children from age-inappropriate materials.
“The association aims to participate in as many relevant events as possible, supported by ongoing sponsorship from event organizers,” the rep said. “This support includes complimentary admission and assistance with accommodations, travel costs, and other resources — aid that enables the association to maintain a presence where its voice matters most.
“Other industry players organize events to support the association or launch promos, donating part of their sales,” the rep continued. “Some companies offer ASACP members and sponsors discounts on their products and services. There are many ways in which companies can leverage their assets, including through their customer base and mailing lists, site members and staffers, and more to help the association. No company has taken such a direct role in this regard as DialXS, ASACP’s Exclusive Travel Sponsor, which has enabled the association to attend numerous events it would not otherwise have been able to.”
In addition to its outreach to frontline operators in the adult entertainment industry, ASACP builds bridges beyond these businesses by leveraging the doors its mission, reputation, and success have opened, helping it protect at-risk youth. This outreach includes many global law enforcement and regulatory agencies, such as the FBI, U.S. Customs, Ofcom and Interpol, plus the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography — which includes the world’s largest financial institutions and other stakeholders, such as AOL, American Express, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Discover, Visa, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo, among others.
Beyond U.S. borders, ASACP continues to work behind the scenes to help reshape the U.K.’s digital media landscape by working with regulators across a range of issues and liaising with a wide range of global NGOs. Together, these relationships strengthen industry advocacy while helping coordinate child-protection efforts across jurisdictions.
“Over three decades, ASACP has adapted alongside dramatic changes in technology — from the early web and desktop publishing to social media, user-generated content, smartphones, streaming platforms, artificial intelligence, and modern age assurance regulations and systems. While the tools have evolved, the association’s mission has remained remarkably consistent,” the rep added. “One recent factor impacting the association’s mission is the rise of AI and generative content, which has been unfortunately (but predictably) misused to produce CSAM. The resulting swift uptick in illicit content caused ASACP’s Tipline reports to surge and resulted in increasingly severe hacking attempts.
“Few nonprofit organizations remain relevant for three decades,” the rep concluded. “Fewer still continue adapting to each new technological challenge while remaining true to their founding mission. Supported generously by its sponsors, members, and contributors, ASACP will continue working with industry, regulators, and supporters to help keep children out of and away from age-inappropriate materials for another 30 years.”
Visit ASACP online and on X.com; contact Henning at tim@asacp.org.