New York, NY - February 6, 2001 - The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. is pleased to announce that Teenhub.net/NetFX Media, Inc. (Teenhub) has made major modifications to its network of Websites in order to bring them into compliance with CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising as well as the federally mandated Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Teenhub, a network provider of Websites (Preteen.chatspot.net, Teenhub.net, Chatspot.net, Teensingles.com), offered chat rooms, message boards and free email to a primarily teen/tween audience. When CARU first reviewed the sites offered by Teenhub in the fall of 2000, the site actively encouraged users under the age of 13 to participate in its interactive features (with chatrooms labeled "Preteen Chat" and "Kids Chat," for those "12 or younger") without requiring parental consent, in violation of the Guidelines and COPPA. At that time, CARU found chat rooms (such as Pre-Teen Chat Lobby and Pre-Teen Chat Too!) that specifically targeted children under 13 and chat rooms that would be of interest to pre-teens (such as Teen Flirt, Teen Hangout, Teen Advice, Teen Singles 13-15). Anyone, regardless of age, could enter any chat room on a Preteen or Teenhub site by merely entering a nickname and clicking on "ENTER." No parental consent was required. These unmoderated chat rooms created a safety risk because children could disclose personal information, thus allowing people of all ages to contact them either online or offline, and also permitted "whispering" into private chats.

Working with CARU, Teenhub has made several changes to its sites, such as requiring registration, and has undertaken to install a tracking mechanism that would prevent underage children from immediately re-registering as one age 13 or over (thereby circumventing the Guidelines and (COPPA.)