New York, NY August 6, 2001 The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) is pleased to announce that Paws, Inc. and Uclick, LLC have worked with CARU to modify their Website, Garfield.com, by requiring informed, parental permission before collecting personal information from children under 13 or allowing those children to post personal information on the site.

When CARU first examined Garfield.com, children under age 13 could sign up for various features, such as free email and free daily online comics, allowing the collection by the company of personally identifiable information, without obtaining parental consent as required by CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (the Guidelines ) and federal law.

When contacted by CARU, the Paws and Uclicl agreed to make changes to the site to bring it into compliance with CARU's Guidelines and the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. They agreed to implement a tracking mechanism to prevent a child who registers as a person less than age 13 from "backclicking" and changing her age to 13 or older in all areas where visitors are asked to submit personal information online, and to prevent children under 13 from using the free Garfield email service.

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/CARU Case Report. Members of the press who wish to see a copy of the decision now should email CARU.

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The National Advertising Review Council (NARC) was formed in 1971 by the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Inc. (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation, Inc. (AAF), and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB). Its purpose is to foster truth and accuracy in national advertising through voluntary self-regulation. NARC is the body that establishes the policies and procedures for the CBBB's National Advertising Division (NAD), The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), and the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).

NAD and CARU are the investigative arms of the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation program. Their casework results from competitive challenges from other advertisers, and also from self-monitoring traditional and new media, including the Internet. The National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the appeals body, is a peer group from which ad-hoc panels are selected to adjudicate those cases that are not resolved at the NAD/CARU level. This unique, self-regulatory system is funded entirely by the business community; CARU is financed by the children's advertising industry, while NAD/NARB's sole source of funding is derived from membership fees paid to the Council of Better Business Bureaus.