New York, NY - February 1, 2001 - The Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CARU) is proud to announce that its program is the first to be approved as a "Safe Harbor" status by the Federal Trade Commission, under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). CARU is the national self-regulatory arm of the children's advertising industry.

Under COPPA, a Website operator can satisfy the Act's requirements by following a set of self-regulatory guidelines approved by the FTC and issued by representatives of marketing or online industries or others. COPPA is intended to protect the safety and privacy of children under the age of 13 on the Internet, and became effective in the Spring of 2000. Many of its provisions were modeled on the CARU Guidelines.

"We're extremely gratified by FTC's recognition of the deep commitment CARU and its supporters have to protecting children.", said Elizabeth Lascoutx, director of CARU, "This new program is really a logical extension, a formalization of that commitment."

"CARU has well earned its leadership position on privacy issues. NARC is very proud of this recognition of CARU's leadership on both privacy and self-regulation.", said Carla Michelotti, chairman of the National Advertising Review Council.

Since its inception in 1974, CARU has not only developed its Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising to advance responsible advertising to young children, it has updated those Guidelines to reflect new issues, technology and thinking about responsible children's advertising. In 1996, in response to growing concerns about children's safety on the Internet, CARU expanded its Guidelines by including a section on "Interactive Electronic Media" covering the Internet and other online services. Since that time, CARU has actively monitored Websites and has worked with scores of operators to bring their sites into compliance with its Guidelines, as it continues to do with advertisers in all media. The FTC's grant of Safe Harbor status to the CARU program reflects CARU's leadership role in self-regulation of advertising and marketing to children.