PTIC

Age Restricted Marketing Guidelines for the Internet

There are emerging technologies like the Internet that are being explored by marketers. Some age-sensitive marketers use web sites to advertise and sell their goods and services, and they are expected to exercise due diligence in limiting youth exposure to this advertising. The key for age-sensitive marketers is to control access to their web sites.

However, with the rapid expansion of the global Internet, the issue of controlling access to web sites is not confined just to sites advertising age-sensitive goods and services. The broader issue is protecting children who use the Internet from any material that their parents or guardians consider inappropriate for them. Responding to this broader issue, the Internet industry has developed a wide range of content blocking services to assist parents in their efforts to ensure that their children's Internet experiences are consistent with their own family values.

By using the advanced blocking services, parents can control their children's access to material on the global Internet that they consider inappropriate. There are three categories of blocking services:

  • Stand-Alone Blocking Software. This inexpensive, easy-to-install software runs with an Internet access program and blocks access to whatever type of content the parents believe is inappropriate for their child. In fact, this software is now being installed on many home PCs at the factory by hardware manufacturers. Blocking software products include Cyber Patrol, CyberSitter, CyberSnoop, The Internet Filter, Microsoft Plus for Kids, NetNanny, NetRated, Net Shepherd, PlanetWeb, Safe Surf, Specs for Kids, SurfWatch, Times Up!, Triple Exposure, and X-Stop.
  • Online Blocking Features. All major commercial online services as well as over 145 regional and local Internet Service Providers around the country offer their customers blocking features integrated into their access software. These features are easy-to-use and part of the regular menu of options offered to users; these features are offered for free or for a small fee. Nearly 14 million Internet households have access to online services that offer easy access to blocking.
  • Browser Blocking Features. An integral feature of major web browsing software gives parents the ability to set up their web software to block access to certain material on the Internet through well-established independent rating systems accessible at no charge to all Internet families. In addition to RSACi, and SafeSurf, the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) provides any interested party with the ability to create additional rating systems to meet the needs and values of his or her own community.

In controlling web site access, the challenge for marketers of age-sensitive goods and services is to design a system of safeguards that works in conjunction with the extensive blocking services already available to parents. There are six system design principles:

  • Empowerment
  • Disclosure
  • Certification
  • Authentication
  • Age Verification
  • Password Protection

Each of these safeguards is important and necessary. However, as with direct marketing, it is important to keep in mind that they are part of a system of safeguards and that effectiveness is a function of the total system.

  1. Empowerment - The first safeguard supports the development and use of Internet blocking services. Using the PICS platform, age-sensitive marketers need to label their web sites as containing advertising for goods and services that are inappropriate for children. These sites must be identified as being for adults-only.

    2. In addition, by pro-actively working with blocking service providers, age-sensitive marketers can ensure that their web sites have been correctly identified for blocking purposes. This will facilitate parental control over sites that are inappropriate for children. To help enforce this voluntary rating system, age-sensitive marketers should agree to rate all their web sites as part of their regular business practices.

  2. Disclosure - The second safeguard supports and expands on the Direct Marketing Association's code of business practices governing Internet marketing. Age-sensitive web sites must clearly identify the marketers sponsoring them. As part of the notice, marketers must provide their e-mail and postal addresses. It is also important and necessary for an age-sensitive marketer to clearly communicate that its web site is restricted to only adult consumers and whether personal information is collected online from individuals. Further, the marketer must disclose its privacy policies and advise parents on the Internet blocking services that are available to them.

    3. All visitors must enter an age-restricted web site through the "front door", where all the Disclosure, Certification, and Authentication information is located. All banners or other hotlinks to an age-restricted site should be clearly labeled as such, and they should link to the site's front door. By providing this notice to Internet visitors before they access an age-sensitive web site, marketers can enable the visitors easily and quickly to decide whether or not the site is appropriate for them. The notice also facilitates parents' efforts to control their children's access to inappropriate web sites.

  3. Certification - The third safeguard is designed to reinforce the notice that an age-sensitive web site is appropriate for only adult consumers. This precaution requires Internet visitors to specifically request access to the web site by certifying that they use the sponsoring good or service, that they are of legal age, and that they want access to the site.

    4. Although age-sensitive marketers are fully committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to their web sites, visitors must be willing to accept the sites' "Terms of Access". Only adult visitors who certify their acceptance of these terms can enter the site.

  4. Authentication - The fourth safeguard authenticates the address on a visitor's certification. There are several ways to do this. One is to collect privileged information like a valid credit card number. Credit cards offer an excellent means of authentication because only the person responsible for the card is authorized to make transactions with it. An underage person who uses someone else's credit card to appear of age, commits a substantial crime. Also, authenticating a visitor by using full name and address information greatly enhances the ability to age verify the visitor.
  5. Age Verification - This safeguard is designed to check the age of certified, authenticated adult visitors against third-party information to ensure that visitors meet a site's age restrictions. Visitors can be age verified by checking commercially available databases. There are numerous vendors available within the Direct Marketing industry providing real-time date of birth information.
  6. Password Protection - Once a new certified authenticated visitor has been age verified, a logon and password are assigned for subsequent visits to the web site.

Protecting children on the global Internet while preserving the rights of adults who want to access age-sensitive web sites and ensuring freedom of expression for the publishers of those sites are critical challenges for parents, policy makers, community groups, and the Internet industry. A combination of Internet blocking services that effectively empower parents to control their children's access to sites they consider inappropriate and the system of safeguards for age-sensitive web sites that are outlined above meets the challenges far better than could any censorship law.

PRIME TIME INTERNATIONAL COMPANY ONLY MARKETS ITS TOBACCO PRODUCTS TO LEGAL AGE SMOKERS. IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN PROMOTIONS OR RECEIVE MAILINGS FROM US, YOU MUST CERTIFY THAT YOU ARE A LEGAL AGE SMOKER AND WISH TO RECEIVE INFORMATION AND PROMOTIONS REGARDING OUR PRODUCTS. WE WILL ALSO VERIFY THAT YOU ARE OF LEGAL SMOKING AGE.