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Welcome to Children's Advertising Review Unit

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The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) was founded in 1974 to promote responsible children's advertising as part of a strategic alliance with the major advertising trade associations through the National Advertising Review Council (comprising the AAAA, the AAF, the ANA and the CBBB). CARU is the children's arm of the advertising industry's self-regulation program and evaluates child-directed advertising and promotional material in all media to advance truthfulness, accuracy and consistency with its Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising and relevant laws.

CARU's basic activities are the review and evaluation of child-directed advertising in all media, and online privacy practices as they affect children. When these are found to be misleading, inaccurate, or inconsistent with CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising, CARU seeks change through the voluntary cooperation of advertisers.

As an extension of its initial mission, to help advertisers deal sensitively with the child audience in a responsible manner, in 1996 CARU added a section to its Guidelines that highlight issues, including children's privacy, that are unique to the Internet and online sites directed at children age 12 and under. These Guidelines served as the basis of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). CARU has established a Safe Harbor Program for our supporters to help them protect the privacy of children online, and meet the requirements of COPPA and our Guidelines.

CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines are deliberately subjective, going beyond the issues of truthfulness and accuracy to take into account the uniquely impressionable and vulnerable child audience.

CARU recognizes that the special nature and needs of a youthful audience require particular care and diligence on the part of advertisers. Consequently, CARU performs a high level of monitoring, including the scrutinizing of over ten thousand television commercials, and the review of advertisements in print, radio and online media.

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Kids Internet Design and Safety Act Seeks to Protect Children from Harmful Online Content

By CARU Staff
United States Senators, Mr. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut and Mr. Edward Markey from Massachusetts, introduced a new bill referred to as the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act (the “KIDS Act”). One of the Senator’s introducing the KIDS Act, Mr. Edward Markey, was the co-author of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). The KIDS Act seeks to include noteworthy advertising rules and create new protections for children online, specifically for online users under the age of 16. The proposed advertising rules within the KIDS Act are to ban websites from: (1) exposing young online users to advertisements “with embedded interactive elements”; (2) recommending any content involving alcohol, nicotine, or tobacco to young online users; and (3) recommending content that includes influencer marketing, like unboxing videos, or host-selling to young online users. Additionally, the KIDS Act seeks to prohibit certain online features to protect children, like prohibiting...
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After Review, CARU Finds Snapchat Compliant with COPPA

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In a recent decision, CARU found Snap Inc.’s (Snap) Snapchat app to be compliant with both the CARU Guidelines and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  “The company goes beyond minimal procedures to prevent under-age use” CARU stated. CARU determined that Snapchat is an app directed to a general audience, not intended for use by children. In reaching this conclusion, CARU considered that Snap’s Terms of Service clearly prohibit users under 13 years of age and makes no effort to market the app to children or provide them with an appealing user experience.  With that understanding, Snapchat is permitted under the Guidelines and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) to age-gate and block children under 13 from using its services, which it does. CARU then examined whether Snapchat does so effectively. CARU observed that Snapchat utilizes age-gates and many safeguards to ensure that if children manage to breach the existing age-...
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Advocates believe Kid Influencers Deserve Same Protections as Other Child Stars

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Although there are child labor laws in California that are designed to protect child stars from exploitation (The Coogan Act), the same protections don't always apply to child YouTube and Instagram stars, or kid influencers. Kid Influencers accounts are usually run by their parents since platforms like YouTube and Instagram have age limits of 13 years old. One consequence of not owning their accounts is that all profits received go directly to the guardians and, unlike traditional child actors in California, these guardians are not required to set aside some of the profits for the children. Advocates like Paul Petersen, believe the legal protections like those in California should apply to children outside of the state. Petersen has said that because YouTube is in San Bruno, California and they are paying to broadcast children, California law must apply to those child stars. Many guardians of kid influencers feel these regulations are unnecessary and that the guardians are doi...
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