---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 16:32:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Cato forum on liquor advertising and electronic media It was about a year ago when I wrote that just about every Federal agency was scheming to regulate the Net. I take no pleasure in saying I was right: we've seen agencies from the FDA to the FTC to the PTO try to grab a piece of cyberspace. Indeed, last Friday at an Internet Caucus briefing, FTC Commissioner Christine Varney said new regulations and laws were necessary; she predicted FTC regulations would be forthcoming later this year. The Center for Media Education is trying to accelerate this process. In a fearmongering report earlier this year, the group demanded that a slew of government agencies -- the FCC, FDA, FTC, CDC, NCI, and the WHO -- take "urgent agction" to "protect" America's children from tobacco and liquor advertising online. Sound familiar? It should. Net-nemesis Sen. Exon and conservative activists like Bruce Taylor and Donna Rice-Hughes trotted out the same lines two years ago when arguing for the Communications Decency Act. The Cato Institute is holding a forum next month on just this issue. Attached is the announcement and an excerpt from the CME report. -Declan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 10:44:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Robin Hulsey <rhulsey@cato.org> The Cato Institute invites you to a Policy Forum Liquor Advertising and the Electronic Media featuring Fred Meister Distilled Spirits Council of the United States Dan Troy Wiley, Rein & Fielding Sam Kazman Competitive Enterprise Institute Heather Mizeur Rep. Joseph Kennedy Tom Howarth * Mothers Against Drunk Driving For years makers of "hard" liquor refrained from advertising their products over radio and television, but last year some companies began doing so. Some companies have also established an advertising presence on the Internet. Is this free speech protected by the First Amendment, or is it a new health threat that should be subject to regulation? Tuesday, May 6, 1997 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (Reception to follow) Cato Institute 1000 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001 To register, news media please call Robin Hulsey at (202) 789-5293 or E-mail to rhulsey@cato.org. * invited **************** Excerpt from: Center for Media Education Report http://tap.epn.org/cme/execsum.html Alcohol and Tobacco on the Web: New Threats to Youth Executive Summary The combination of these new Web marketing technologies gives marketers of alcohol and tobacco an arsenal of powerful new weapons. Urgent action is needed to ensure that effective safeguards are put in place to protect young people from the harmful effects of online marketing of alcohol and tobacco. Because of the unique nature of the interactive media, many of these new forms of advertising, of particular appeal to youth, appear to be inherently unfair and deceptive. Some of these practices may already be violating the law. The Cigarette Act, which has since 1971 kept advertising of cigarettes off radio and television, applies to "any medium of electronic communication subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission" and thus would be applicable to the Internet as well. The alcohol industries have not been subjected to the same kinds of legal barriers to advertising as tobacco. However, all advertising, including online advertising, is subject to the current laws against deceptive, unfair, or other illegal practices. [...] Among the recommendations for action, the Center for Media Education calls for the following steps to combat the online promotion of alcohol and tobacco products to young people: 1. Congress should conduct hearings on the online marketing of alcohol and tobacco to the nation's children. 2. The Federal Trade Commission should use its authority over unfair and deceptive advertising to immediately launch an investigation into these practices. The FTC should also expand its current inquiry on online privacy to include alcohol and tobacco marketing data-collection practices. 3. The Food and Drug Administration should carefully monitor online tobacco promotion developments and develop any additional safeguards needed to protect youth that are not already covered by the Cigarette Act. 4. Federal agencies responsible for the public health, including the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control, should examine the implications for public health of online marketing of alcohol and tobacco products. 5. The national public health community, including professional medical organizations, should launch initiatives to educate their members and the public about this issue. 6. The international health community, including the World Health Organization, should launch similar inquiries. Special attention should be given to the negative consequences of new media marketing in the developing world. The U.S. should play a leadership role in the international arena to create effective global safeguards. 7. Parents and educators should help educate our nation's youth about these new dangers. They should establish policies in the schools to limit exposure of underage youth to these sites. 8. Alcohol industries should abide by their own self-regulatory codes and stop targeting youth in all media, including online. 9. Cigarette companies should refrain from moving onto the Internet to market and promote their products. If companies fail to comply with the Cigarette Act, appropriate legal action should be taken. ###