Epoch is proud to announce its endorsement of ICRA, the Internet Content Rating Association. ICRA is a non-profit organization committed to making the Internet safer for children through self-regulation. Many of the largest programs in the industry have embraced ICRA as the new standard of labeling their websites to help prevent access by minors to adult material.

Epoch applauds the intentions of ICRA and those webmasters who are voluntarily taking part in their program. Yesterday, ICRA released a statement to several organizations congratulating the online adult entertainment industry for their cooperation and more announcements are expected. We would like to encourage all adult webmasters to take part in the ICRA labeling program as an ethical approach to their business as well as one which might help reduce problems from unqualified purchasers.

You can read the press release from ICRA below or see it at http://www.avnonline.com/issues/200203/newsarchive/030602_lead.shtml.

Internet Content Rating Association Salutes Visionary Companies for Aggressive Stance On Self Regulation, Website Labeling

Washington, March 6, 2002 Leading companies in the adult entertainment industry ranging from Larry Flynt Productions and MaxCash to YNOTMasters and Epoch are taking a proactive and aggressive stand to protect children from inappropriate or harmful Internet content, according to the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). ICRA is a global, non-profit organization of Internet industry leaders committed to making the Internet safer for children, while respecting the rights of content providers.

Many of the most popular content providers and most respected companies that support the adult online entertainment industry have stepped up voluntarily to support ICRA and include the ICRA labeling system on their Websites. The companies that have demonstrated a strong corporate commitment to protecting children include:

· Adult Chamber of Commerce which responds to the needs of the online adult Webmaster business community (www.adultchamber.com);

· Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network (AEBN), the adult video-on-demand industry leader (www.aebn.com);

· AVN Online, the most popular online magazine in the industry (www.avnonline.com);

· CashQuest2.com and its entire WebQuest network of Websites (www.cashquest2.com);

· Epoch Transaction Services, one of the largest Internet transaction gateways in the world (www.epochsystems.com) and (www.PayCom.net);

· Klixxx Magazine, a policy and regulator resource (www.klixxx.com);

· Larry Flynt Products, including (www.hustler.com) and its affiliate program (www.flyntdigital.com);

· Playboy Enterprises, Inc., including (www.playboy.com);

· RJB Telcom, Inc. And its Maximum Cash program (www.maxcash.com), a leading provider of adult Webmaster affiliate programs;

· YNOTMasters.com, the most visited news source for the adult entertainment industry (www.ynotmasters.com).

"We firmly believe in protecting children from adult materials online and have joined forces with ICRA to do just that," said Larry Flynt, President of Larry Flynt Productions. "We have labeled all of our Websites, including our two most-visited sites, www.Hustler.com and www.BarelyLegal.com, and encourage every adult Website to support and participate with ICRA, too."

In addition to labeling their Websites using the ICRA labeling system, companies and organizations that partner with ICRA can utilize the Protecting Kids with Digimarc program. This program allows Webmasters to embed imperceptible code into digital images to flag the images as containing adult content. The digital "flag" stays with the image as it is copied, allowing the flag to travel with the image to other Internet destinations such as e-mail, newsgroups and Websites and enabling the image to be identified and managed as it is used online.

"It’s gratifying to see so many adult entertainment companies taking stewardship in their industry," said Mary Lou Kenny, director of ICRA, North America. "We applaud their voluntary efforts to protect children from inappropriate material and empower families to control their online experiences."

The ICRA labeling system offers content providers an online questionnaire to help define and describe the content available on their Web sites. ICRA then generates a content label, a Meta tag, which the Webmaster adds to his or her site. This tag does not disturb or interfere with the Website or its content. Users can set up their Internet browser or compatible filtering software to allow or disallow access to Websites based on the individual labels. For more information, visit www.icra.org.

Epoch Transaction Services (www.epochsystems.com) and PayCom.net (www.paycom.net): "As a leader in the business of payment processing, we want to help encourage the industry down a path of fiscally and ethically responsible behavior. Partnering with ICRA is, without question, a step in the right direction both to protect children and to reduce unqualified transactions from minors. This helps ensure that our clients retain control of their content and shows that we are all doing our part to protect children from inappropriate material." Rand Pate, director of corporate communications, Epoch and Paycom.net

Rand at Epoch
Director of Corporate Communications
rand@epochsystems.com