By John-Henry Westen
BELFAST, Northern Ireland, February 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A conference on ‘Protecting Children Online’ which took place in Belfast in November 2005 was initially billed as an event sponsored by the European Union and the Virtual Global Taskforce, an organization made up of law enforcement agencies from around the world. With the backing of the EU and international law enforcement, Belfast governmental authorities were pleased to host the conference and provide a civic reception.
However once it was revealed that the conference permitted the participation of the hard core porn industry, local government officials were outraged and demanded an explanation from the EU.
Northern Ireland Assemblyman, Dr. Esmond Birnie, a leading opponent of the normalization of pornography, said in a press release today, “The abuse of the hospitality of the City of Belfast will be forcefully raised with (US) Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.”
LifeSiteNews.com has learned that the EU is now denying its part in the 2005 conference. “The civic reception at Belfast city Hall was officially for an EU initiative, it may even be the case that the EU conference was not organized by the EU,” said Birnie. “If the European Commission belatedly decided to distance themselves from the conference that will not be much of a surprise,” he added.
Attending the conference was Joan Irvine, a representative of the ASACP, a front group for the hardcore porn industry which purports to be advocating against child pornography. In 1996 the porn industry created an agency to work on the inside of the movements against child pornography to ensure their interests were protected. “Adult Sites Advocating Child Protection” (ASACP) was established but soon changed its name to “Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection” to draw less attention to itself.
The notion of the multi-billion dollar porn industry being concerned with child porn is, according to activists against human trafficking is a fiction. The titles of those sites which are members of ASACP demonstrate the fallacy. The titles include numerous references to “teen” and “boys”.
A report on the Belfast conference from a porn industry news service called XBIZ News noted that Irvine spoke with Clinton appointee Andrew Oosterbaan, Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) under US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Moreover the report indicates that law enforcement is accepting the porn industry’s false distinction between adult and child porn.
The XBIZ article quotes Jim Gamble, deputy director general of the National Crime Squad and chairman of the VGT, saying that using “pornography” to describe child pornography images is confusing and associates an industry that employs consenting adults with one that profits from “online child abuse activities.” The VGT has no interest in consenting legal adult entertainment, Gamble added.
“I do not feel that the Pay-per-View industry has any contribution to make to the fight against child pornography,” emphasized Dr. Birnie.