The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (”CARU”) has reached an agreement with Roca Wear, a children’s clothing line, to discontinue showcasing its website on advertisements directed at children.

Roca Wear produced an advertisement that appeared in the April 2005 print edition of Nickelodeon Magazine, which is exclusively directed at children. In the ad, Roca Wear prominently displays its web site and encourages readers to visit. The site is not designed for children in particular, but given the circulation of advertising, it is clear that children will visit the site. As a consequence, the site could, in theory, collect personally identifiable information from children without parental permission. Roca Wear has agreed to remove references to its web site in future advertising directed at children.

Practice pointer: If companies know (or have a reasonable expectation) that children may be visiting their website and registering with personal information, simply removing advertising may not be enough. Companies that have a prominent web presence will have to institute “neutral screening procedures” in order to filter out children under 13 and keep from contaminating their database. Merely because a web site is not directed at children does not mean children do not visit the site. Any site that has a “registration” process and is reasonably likely to attract children should institute a neutral screening process.

This entry was posted by Tsan Abrahamson on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.