New York, September 4, 2002 - The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc. is pleased to announce that Wizards of the Coast Inc. has agreed to modify information collection practices at its Website, wizards.com. Wizards of the Coast Inc. is a manufacturer of trading card games, board games, and electronic media products.

In collecting personal information from children under 13 in the registration process for its message boards, the site failed to include in its privacy policy or its notice to parents all of the information that is required pursuant to CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising and the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Wizards of the Coast has agreed to revise these statements; it also agreed to implement neutral age screening at the site.

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.