New York, NY - October 30, 2003 - The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB), is pleased to announce that DSI Toys, Inc. (DSI) has agreed to modify www.Spinheadsworld.com, the Website of its Spinheads dolls, in order to protect the privacy of children on its site. The Website, like the dolls, is directed at children younger that 13.

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 the site, instead of assuming that all visitors were under that age of 13, allowed children to disclose personally identifiable information (PII) (for example, full name, street address, email address, city, state and zip code), to the operator without parental consent or notice and the ability to opt out as required by the Guidelines and COPPA. In addition, the site had asked for more information than was required to send Ecards to friends and had an incomplete privacy policy.

When contacted by CARU, DSI immediately changed the registration requirement to reflect the fact that spinheadsworld.com is a children's site. It now collects first name, email address and parent's email address from all who wished to register for the email list and informs parents of this fact and gives them an opportunity to opt their child out. Furthermore, the operator changed the method of sending Ecards so that only first name of sender and recipient were required. With respect to the privacy policy, the operator agreed to make any necessary additions or changes to bring its posted policy into conformity with COPPA and the Guidelines.

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.