CARU Welcomes New Leader to Key Industry Self-Regulatory Program

Dona J. Fraser Named Director of Children’s Advertising Review Unit

New York – Aug. 24, 2017 – The Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) and Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) today announced the appointment of  Dona J Fraser as Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). CARU was created in 1974 to promote principles of responsibility in advertising to children.

Policies and procedures for CARU are set by the ASRC. The ASRC self-regulatory system is administered by the CBBB.

Ms. Fraser, a leading privacy expert, comes to CARU from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a self-regulatory program developed by the video game industry.  Ms. Fraser brings to CARU a strong understanding of the marketplace challenges facing children’s advertisers, the complexities of children’s privacy issues and extensive experience with self-regulation.  Ms. Fraser has spoken on these issues both in the U.S. and abroad. At ESRB, she served as Vice President, Privacy Certified, starting in 2012.  Prior to that, Ms. Fraser was the ESRB Director, Privacy Online.  In those positions Ms. Fraser was responsible for providing hands-on assistance to participating companies on development of data collection and privacy practices to meet ESRB standards.  She also crafted best privacy practices in several areas, including mobile apps, downloadable games, short-form privacy policies, behavioral advertising and social networking.  Prior to her ESRB role, Ms. Fraser served as a Director of Business and Legal Affairs for music labels at BMG/Sony Music in New York.

CARU has been monitoring child-directed advertising and guiding the advertising industry for more than 40 years; CARU’s guidelines require that advertising directed to children be truthful, appropriate for a child audience and fair.  CARU was the first authorized Safe Harbor Program by the Federal Trade Commission under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and since the inception of COPPA in 2000, CARU has issued more than 200 COPPA-related decisions.

“Through more than four decades of service, ASRC programs like CARU have showcased the advertising industry’s consistent commitment to  truth and accuracy in advertising and to evolving and effective standards of fair dealing for advertising directed to children,” said George K. H. Schell, ASRC Board Chair and immediate Past Chair of the CBBB Board of Directors. “Ms. Fraser brings to her new position a breadth of experience that will allow her to build on the strong foundation established by CARU in the past to meet the rapidly evolving challenges of the advertising industry and consumers.”

“Ms. Fraser brings a great skill set to an organization that occupies a critical position within the self-regulatory system,” said C. Lee Peeler, ASRC President and CEO, and EVP, National Advertising, CBBB. “We’re delighted to have a professional of Dona’s stature and experience leading CARU.”