By Will Sturgeon, 23 August 2006 09:15
NEWS
The Home Office has been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the watchdog received a complaint claiming a radio ad promoting a website offering advice to children on staying safe online actually led listeners to a site promoting pornography.
The radio ad urged people to visit ThinkuKnow.co.uk. However, it failed to spell out the fact the web address uses 'u', rather than 'you'. As such at least one listener visited ThinkYouKnow.co.uk which included a page of links for various services.
Although the page itself is fairly innocuous, and visitors would have to follow at least two clicks before seeing any content of an adult nature, the ASA has taken seriously claims that this exposed listeners to pornography.
An adjudication from the ASA stated: "This was particularly concerning as the ad was aimed at teenagers and the service being promoted was to help them stay safe online."
The watchdog also ruled the ad should not be broadcast again.
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Mark E Ferry
What an utter load of hogwash. I cannot begin even to describe the incredible stupidity of anyone who believes a domain reseller's search page (thinkyouknow.co.uk) helps you find "porn" any better than, say, Google.
If I were the owner of thinkyouknow.co.uk, I'd sue.
2. Andrew Fernie
Amazing... the Home Office, part of a government notorious for spouting politically correct gibberish gets hoisted by its own petard.
People at the ASA clearly need to get a life - should every company advert carry a phonetic spelling of their address in case some clown complains when they mispell it and end up somewhere unsavoury?
3. dave
i have checked the sight and its just the same as any other search engine.
no real dramas. more a storm in a tea cup.
4. anonymous
Hah - a quick google shows several sites showing the wrong link in writing, so what hope radio listeners?
e.g. see the bottom of the page
http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/BTRegions/Wales/WelshLanguagePolicy/TheBTfamily.htm
I wonder how long it'll take BT to put it right?
5. Alan
But why didn't they just use a .gov.uk domain name ? No possibilty of confusion and both thinkuknow and thinkyouknow.gov.uk could have been created.
6. Steve Watkins
Alan of Hampshire asks 'Why didn't they use a .gov.uk domain?'. Simple. We are talking about civil servants here and who said civil servants have brains? The jobsworths who infest the home office are the most incompetent of ALL civil servants. Which is an achievement I suppose.