New York, NY - October 3, 2000 - The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) is pleased to announce that the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG), a division of the Walt Disney Company (WDC), has modified its Websites in order to protect the safety of children. WDIG is the unit of the WDC responsible for all Websites owned by WDC, including Disney.com and GO.com.

When CARU examined Disney.com in the Spring of 2000 registered users had free access to unmoderated chat rooms on GO.com where participants can post personal information and the content may be “mature.” This is in contrast to the fully moderated chats within Disney.com

At that time, WDIG sent notices to parents of children under age 13 who had previously registered for Disney.com stating that those children presently had access to some interactive features on GO.com and that in order for their children to have continued access, the parents must validate their children’s account, thereby giving consent to the continued use of those features. Parents, however, were not informed that the chat rooms on GO.com are all unmonitored, and that some chats (for example, “Teen Chat,” “Flirt Room,” “Love Chat”), while attractive to tweens (children 9-12), are not appropriate for children and included people of all ages. These chat rooms often contain personal photographs, some in sexual poses, and graphic sexual conversations, including offers to participate in cybersex, and allowed “whispering” into private chats.

Also of concern was WDIG’s method of registration that asked prospective registrants to choose from one of three categories, “KIDS 12 or younger,” “TEENS 13-17,” or “ADULTS 18 or over.” Since children, especially those between the ages of 9 and 12, prefer to see themselves as older, CARU believed that these categories could provide incentive to those children to mischaracterize their age and circumvent the requirement of obtaining prior verifiable parental consent.

Disney thereafter implemented new parental disclosure pages that more accurately informed parents of the nature of the interactive features their children would be permitted to use, and has agreed to modify its registration process by revamping its categories to take into account tweens’ desire to be classed with teens. In addition, WDIG has gone beyond the requirements of CARU’s Guidelines and COPPA by undertaking to create a mechanism by which all children under 13, even those who have permission to chat, will be prevented from entering any unmoderated WDIG chat rooms.

CARU’s inquiry was conducted under NAD/NARB/CARU Procedures for Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising. Details of the inquiry, CARU’s decision and the advertiser’s response will be included in the next NAD Case Report. Members of the press who wish to see a copy of the decision now should email CARU at elascoutx@caru.bbb.org or pspaeth@caru.bbb.org.