egafd.com

Background
Everyone knows the industry is facing challenges these days and I'm not going to waste time going through them all. But one that has faced the UK for the last couple of years has been that of regulation, primarily in reaction to the amount of free porn on the internet, and the need to make steps to protect minors from being able to access it.

This is not just a UK issue though, and more widespread measures will certainly impact businesses globally. Some businesses have moved themselves (theoretically, or otherwise) overseas to avoid being regulated, and others are keeping quiet and hoping they won't get picked up. However, the most practical way of dealing with regulatory issues is to meet them head on, be proactive and as an industry collective, steer the debate in the direction which satisfies regulators, public opinion, and us as businesses.

A number of providers in the UK have joined together to form the `Adult Providers Network` and we regularly meet informally to discuss industry issues, help each other, share experiences and do some business together. We're not affiliated with ATVOD, Ofcom, or any governmental organisation. We're simply a collective of responsible adult businesses trying to steer the direction of our industry in a way which keeps us all IN business!


Our next meeting: You should come along!
Age Verification in Practice - Workable solutions for the Adult Industry
On Thursday 15th May we're going to be holding our next meeting in London. There's no charge and complimentary refreshments (yay!). The agenda this time will be about practical age-verification solutions and we have guest speakers from a number of age verification provision services. The meeting will be of great interest to;

* Existing ATVOD registered businesses
* UK adult businesses who have not yet been contacted by ATVOD
* Businesses from outside the UK who want to fact-find and start preparing for when similar regulatory measures are imposed in your business jurisdiction.
* Clip store owners and producers, whether they've been shut down, under regulation, under threat of closure, or just worried.
* Anyone else concerned about regulation, and the current state of the adult industry

It doesn't matter about your business size, and solo cam models and back-bedroom website owners are very much welcome indeed. Don?t worry about having to play an active role, you can just come along and listen so if a fact find and some free coffee is what you hope to get out of things, then that's okay.

By coming along, you will not only be able to find out more about ways to satisfy regulatory criteria but also meet others in the industry and do a little business too.

There is no charge, but we do have limited space available. If you would like to attend, please drop me a line at robin@britsexcash.com for more details. We look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks!

its this what UKAP does and you were at one of our open meetings Rob, why not keep it to one association to get larger numbers to turn up than having another one with the same goals, makes sense to work together than set something else up? Just my thoughts, hope your well man

Robin

Can you say which UK providers are part of `Adult Providers Network`.

Thanks

Jason

Cheers Paul, we must get together for another chinwag fella. Its been too long since we put the world to rights!

I just spoke to Terry at some length actually, about this very matter. There is a slight difference between the bodies of UKAP and what we're trying to put together in the APN. In that UKAP deals with the production side of the business; models, producers (the people that do all the fun sex stuff).
And the APN is made up of people trying to provide outlets for your content, in effect. As such, the agendas are slightly different and our challenges are too.

I know there's been a bit of ding-dong since the whole regulation thing came about and industry people have had plenty to say on the matter. But as Terry and I concluded, we're actually all swimming in the same direction, and that's the survival of our industry. Simple as that really!

Cheers
Rob

Hey Jason,
to answer your point is tricky... today.
I'll explain 8) The group first started meeting as members of registered ATVOD services. That is, just the people who'd been caught up with and were regulated or going through the process.

We don't have an official membership and in fact only came up with the name of our collective at the last get together, where we also started to set out what we wanted to try and accomplish as a collective.

The companies involved at recent meetings have been;
Television X
Paul Raymond
BritSexCash
Studio66
The Dirty Doctor
Miss Miranda
Playboy
Joybear
Only Tease
Chellozone

Hope that helps
Cheers

Rob

Thanks for the update, I will look to come along as it will be interesting to hear where the group is going with age verification and ATVOD, is it looking to get improvements across all sites or just except ATVOD and get others to sign up.

My view is that the industry as a whole needs to adopt a strong age verification and education policy for all where ever you are and get ATVOD to understand this and not tie the hands of UK sites with their half baked rules that we all know do not work.

Cheers Jason,
your input will be very welcome. Its not really a case of the UK industy accepting ATVOD or not though. They're here and are the industry regulators whether we like it or not.

As the APN, the groups aim is to help people through the process, because ATVOD as regulators CANT provide help or recommendations about compliance solutions. They'll only tell you if and when you're in breach of the rules.

What were also doing is trying to gather up the online publication part of the industry (i.e the websites who are directly affected by the regulations) to try and help steer the direction of future changes in regulation. Its much better that we try and get our house in order, be proactive on the issues and try and promote compliance methods that satisfy regulation AND that help maintain our businesses. Much better that way than have half worked out solutions imposed.

Cheers
Rob

"because ATVOD as regulators CANT provide help or recommendations about compliance solutions"

Sorry to butt in Rastansaga but I simply couldnt resist so dont take offence as my opinion is not aimed at you but reading this just proves my point what a useless quango ATVOD is

You pay them to regulate you but they dont really do anytjing to help your business sounds like the same extortionate methods deployed by protection rackets set up not to protect you from anyone but themselves

ATVOD are a joke!!!!

The best method is to educate parents in the use of parental filters. What you guys have signed up to is the equivalent of sex shop licensing

I'm still trying to find out if Pete Johnson is on a percentage for each sign up and as for Chris Ratcliffe harping on every night on twitter about "levelling the playing field for the regulated" (puh-lease) and is being responsible and all that lip service blah I didnt see him for dust when it came to spearheading the health initiatives and other issues over the past 10 years.

In fact Ive not seen him be proactive in anything except ATVOD and thats only because his agenda is to get hardcore on the Sky platform. In short he is levelling the playing field for himself.

I dont see TVX hardcore website in any rankings on th playing field simply because they missed the boat for being blinkered with their TV station for so long

Hardcore on TV will never happen. No matter how much he tries to comply and make good to ATVOD and Pete Johnson. ATVOD are there to make money as a quango for the government so that they can say "good job" and turn a blind eye to it while it is in effect doing nothing to protect children from seeing porn on the internet.

I know Terry, don't worry, I'm not one to take offence as I said the other day 8)
As for ATVOD being of no help or anything progressive towards my business. Yes, that's right. The situation really is very much Dick Turpin-like but nevertheless that's what we have to deal with.

Re: Chris Ratcliff, well I still think there's time left for you two to kiss and make up. But all I'd say is consider these points;

1) The government/ATVOD have been misguided and tackling UK small businesses is pissing in the wind if child protection was the key issue

2) Chris Ratcliff was the single adult provider on the ATVOD board, and indeed the one that changed their direction towards global free-porn tubes as the places our young eyes are drawn to. And more than that, being able to back that up with audience figures to prove that concentrating regulation of UK commercial sites really is pissing in the wind.

As a small business owner, I didn't want to be regulated. I'd prefer to operate as it was before in the porn Wild West. But regulation means I can't. So if I can't, then a global levelling of the playing field is at least a fair way for my business to operate. And along the way if the internet is cleaner, then as a parent I don't mind that too.

Whether those aims are achievable or not is hard to judge. But I don't mind trying to make them.