For
Release: January
28, 2004
FTC Seeks Public
Comment on Adult Content Spam Rule
As required by the CAN-SPAM Act, the Federal
Trade Commission today announced a proposal to establish a
mark or notice that will be required for inclusion in spam
that contains sexually oriented material. The purpose of the
mark or notice is to inform the recipient that a spam message
contains sexually oriented material and to facilitate filtering
of such spam messages. Establishment of a mark to accomplish
these purposes is one of several actions that Congress has
directed the Commission to undertake by enacting the CAN-SPAM
Act, which was signed into law on December 16, 2003.
A Federal Register Notice to be published
shortly will seek public comment on the proposal. The CAN-SPAM
Act requires the Commission to prescribe the mark or notice
within 120 days after passage of the Act. Because of the statutory
deadline, the comment period ends on February 17.
The FTC proposes to adopt a rule prescribing
the phrase “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT-CONTENT: ” as the
mark or notice mandated by the CAN-SPAM Act. The proposed
rule also would follow the intention of the CAN-SPAM Act to
protect consumers from unwitting exposure to pornographic
images in spam, by requiring this mark to be included both
in the subject line of any e-mail message that contains sexually
oriented material, and in the electronic equivalent of a “brown
paper wrapper” in the body of the message. This “brown
paper wrapper” would be what a recipient would initially
see when opening a message containing sexually oriented material.
It would include the prescribed mark or notice, certain other
specified information, and no other information or images.
The proposed rule would include a “definitions”
section to clarify that certain terms taken from the Act and
appearing in the rule have the definitions prescribed by particular
referenced sections of the Act. Finally, the proposed rule
would include a severability provision, so that in the event
a portion of the rule is struck, the remainder of the rule
will stay in effect.
The Commission vote to approve publication
of the Federal Register notice was 5-0.
Questions or comments can be directed to
adultlabel@ftc.gov
or to Jonathan Kraden at 202-326-2614.
Copies
of the federal register notice are available from the FTC’s
Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s
Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer
to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices
in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers
spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get
free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free,
1-877-FTC-HELP (1 877-382-4357), or use the complaint form
at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing,
identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer
Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds
of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
and abroad.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Claudia Bourne Farrell,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2181
(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/01/adult.htm)
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Related Documents:
16 C.F.R. PART 316: Rules
Implementing the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003:
Requirement To Place Warning Labels On Certain
Commercial Electronic Mail: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
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