New York, NY - May 24, 2001 - The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. is pleased to announce that Emap, the owner of the Teenmag Website, has made extensive changes to its Website in order to address children’s safety and privacy.

Teenmag.com , the online counterpart of “Teen Magazine”, came to the attention of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) through its routine patrolling of the Internet. Teenmag.com offers chat, bulletin boards, free email accounts and sweepstakes, which require entrants to submit personally identifiable information. CARU’s over-riding concern with the Website was its lack of effective age screening.

CARU, the first FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor, recently revised its Guidelines to deal with concerns regarding the collection of personal information at general audience Web sites that may attract children. Specifically, CARU has formally taken the position that in Web sites where there is a reasonable expectation that children will be visiting, appropriate age-screening mechanisms should be employed to determine whether verifiable parental consent or notice and opt-out is necessitated.

In response to CARU’s concerns, Teenmag will modify its Privacy Statement and effectively screen for age at registration areas. In addition, Teen will implement a CARU compliant parental consent mechanism in the event that the Website offers its interactive services to children under 13 years of age.

CARU is pleased that Teen is willing to take steps toward insuring the safety and privacy of the under 13 audience.

CARU’s inquiry was conducted under NAD/NARB/CARU Procedures for Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising and resolved within 60 business days. 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.

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.