Los Angeles, CA (December 16, 2008) – The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) was in Washington D.C. this month participating in the semi-annual meeting of the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography. ASACP Director of Technology and Forensic Research, Tim Henning, attended the meeting.

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, Yahoo, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Henning, who has been a part of the Analytics Working Group since the Coalition’s inception, is also a member if it’s Technology Challenges Working Group.

At the meeting Henning discussed ASACP’s findings that there has been a significant drop in commercial child pornography (CCP). Henning was able to confirm that ASACP’s data coincides with NCMEC and law enforcement’s data that there has been about a two/thirds drop in CCP compared to what had been seen prior to September 2007.

This decline is credited to the combined efforts of the members of the Coalition to inhibit the ability of child pornographers to process payments. This decline in CCP is also due to recent large law enforcements take downs of child pornography rings over the past fourteen months.

On an ongoing basis, ASACP sends a large volume of CCP reports to NCMEC and law enforcement and Henning is consistently contacted by various law enforcement agencies for additional information. Most recently, an ongoing joint international law enforcement operation led to the arrest of more than 60 people in the United States involved in the trade of CP.

“ASACP is pleased that it has contributed to the takedowns of these CP rings," stated ASACP CEO Joan Irvine. “Of course none of our work with the Coalition would be possible without the support of our sponsors. ASACP is grateful to the adult industry for funding our ability to fight child pornography."

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 with its ‘Restricted to Adults’ Website Label. Companies and individuals interested in supporting ASACP may go to www.asacp.org for more information on how to get involved.