UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (AP) CompuServe, the second largest online service,
said today it will move its adultoriented materials into areas that children
can't tap into.

The company, based in this Columbus suburb, said it will place adult chat
rooms, games and other materials into a new Adult Community area starting
Aug. 5. Only members with passwords and proof of age will be able to access
the area.

CompuServe said it will segregate content only from its flagship CSi online
service and not the World Wide Web, the globally connected network on the
Internet.

``We're controlling our own material. We won't have any control over material
on the Internet,'' company spokesman Steve Conway said today.

``We're trying to provide an environment considerably safer than the
Internet,'' he said.

The decision follows a change Prodigy Inc. announced last week. The company,
based in White Plains, N.Y., plans to block members from trying to view child
pornography, Prodigy spokesman Mike Darcy said today.

Members signing on with the Adult Community will receive passwords and must
provide their names, ages and other information. The company will mail
confirmation of access to account holders CompuServe has previously
identified as adults.

Conway said CompuServe does not put pornography online but allows material
with adultoriented language or themes.

The content in the Adult Community will be controlled by Microsystems
Software Inc., which already provides CompuServe with software that allows
parents to control what their children see.

Microsystems, based in Framingham, Mass., will use the SafeSurf Internet
Rating Standard, a voluntary system measuring sex, adult themes, violence,
intolerance, gambling, drug use and profanity.

Content is rated on a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 representing advocacy of doing
such things as taking drugs. CompuServe said it will not accept content rated
higher than 5.

CompuServe, with about 5.4 million subscribers worldwide, is second in size
to America Online, which has more than 8.5 million.

A message seeking comment was left today for Virginiabased AOL.

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