Offshore Adult Website Merchant Account Alert: Practice R-18

One of the controversies surrounding <strong>adult businesses</strong> over the internet is their ability to filter their visitors. By filtering means only accepting visitors above the legal age, which is above 18 or 21. This is a very important rule that adult website owners who have <strong>offshore merchant accounts</strong> should ponder on. It is daunting to think how the internet can be censored. But, as responsible adult website operators, it can be done, though there is always still the possibility that minors can log in and view the adult contents.<br /><br /><h2>Governing laws</h2>A number of laws have been passed and enforced the protections of minors from being exposed to adult content. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 has made a strong point on keeping children away from the preys of websites deemed to be for the mature audience. Requiring producers of sexually explicit material to get proof of age for every model they hire and keep those records on hand is a policy indicated at the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. <br /><br /><h3>Adult internet merchant responsibility</h3>As an <strong>adult internet merchant account </strong>holder, filtering your audience is not only your responsibility to the law, but also to the other customers as well. The thought of actually tracking the ages of your customers seem impossible,since your operating online, accessed by millions of everyone who has an internet connection. Also, since your business&#39; revenues will be coming from card-not-present transactions. So, it is your crucial task to male sure to do your social responsibilities. Here are suggestions to preventing minors to access your adult website:<br /><br /><ul><li><u>Display a disclaimer at the homepage</u></li></ul><blockquote>This can be a just a paragraph or two saying that the site is for people above 18 and contains sexually-explicit materials. You should directly let them know the site contains content only for mature audiences only and should only proceed if they&#39;re on the 18 and above age bracket.<br /></blockquote><br /><ul><li><u>Install an Address Verification Service (AVS)</u></li></ul><blockquote>This is a good effective feature because of its ability to actually verify the age of the viewer. The AVS sends the information to the credit card issuer who then sends back certain personally identifiable information such as name, address, and date of birth. <br /></blockquote><br /><ul><li><u>Implement registration for members</u></li></ul><blockquote>Getting your customers to become members increases your chances to make sure all of them at least have graduated high school.<br /></blockquote><br /><h4>18 vs. 21</h4>While the tools to prevent minors from viewing adult content are emerging, there are those who tend to question never-ending issue of who should your adult internet business cater to, to the ones who are of legal age to drive or those who are old or legal age to drink alcohol. This is raised as <strong>adult internet merchants</strong> are confused on what age do they accommodate. Well, the level of maturity does not depends on age. The most important thing is that at least these ages can make at least responsible judgments on matter that they see.<br /><br /><h5>Know your target</h5>It all comes down to knowing who you want to have as your customers. As an <strong>adult internet merchant account </strong>holder, you have a responsibility to get the message across that you won&#39;t allow the young ones&#39; minds to be exposed to content that they should not be aware of, at least, at their tender age. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />