New York, NY-July 29, 2003 - The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) is pleased to announce that The Hearst Corporation (Hearst) has agreed to modify Cosmogirl.com, the Website of the magazine Cosmogirl, in order to protect the privacy of children on its site. The Website, like the magazine, attracts teens and tweens (children eight to twelve years of age).

CARU, which monitors Websites for compliance with CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (the Guidelines) as well with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), had found that children under age 13 who wished to obtain a free "mystery gift" and who wanted to subscribe to Cosmogirl magazine could disclose personally identifiable information (PII) (for example, full name, street address, email address, city, state and zip code), to the operator without any age screening and without parental consent as required by the Guidelines and COPPA. In addition, children under age 13 who visited the site could register for various features, such as "Club 2024," "Talk to Us," "CG! E-zine," by disclosing PII to the operator, without obtaining parental consent or notification and the chance to opt out as required by the Guidelines and COPPA. This was possible because, although Hearst had asked visitors to state their date of birth and informed children under age 13 that they were too young to register, it had not instituted a tracking mechanism to insure that a child could not change her age to avoid being barred from those features of the site.

When contacted by CARU, Hearst immediately agreed to institute effective age screening at all areas where visitors are asked for PII. Further, the operator stated it would refrain from sending marketing materials to those individuals who, prior to the installation of age-screening on the subscription form for the magazine, after clicking "Subscribe now and bill me later," subsequently failed to pay.

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.