Child protection site "contained porn links"

LONDON (Reuters) - A Home Office radio spot advertising a web site telling children how to stay safe online has been banned in a mix-up over links to pornography.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the ad should not be broadcast again in its current form after receiving a complaint from a listener when it was aired in March.

The problem arose over the spelling of the Web site, www. thinkuknow.co.uk. The listener had called up thinkyouknow.co.uk -- with an extra "y" and "o" -- and had found that site contained links to adult material.

The ASA said: "Although we recognized that there was no intention, we considered that a significant effect of the ad had been to indirectly publicize services which were unacceptable for broadcast: namely restricted adult material and other sexual services."

The Home Office/Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP) advert was broadcast on 96 Trent FM with the message "what you say online isn't always what a pedophile hears. Giving out personal information could let a pedophile track you down."

CEOP told the standards authority it was aware of the potential for error but believed teenagers were accustomed to using abbreviations such as "u" in text messages and e-mails.

It noted that the inappropriate material on the other site was at least four clicks away from the home page and that by then any user would have realized they had made a mistake.