Kids at Risk: Report Identifies 150 Websites Selling Anaboli...( 'Pumped Up on the Internet' calls f...),Health

'Pumped Up on the Internet' calls for action from ICANN, US-based domain

name registrars

ARLINGTON, Va. and BOSTON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- LegitScript.com, an online pharmacy verification service, and KnujOn.com, an Internet spam and criminality watchdog, have released an investigative report that identifies 156 websites engaged in the illicit sale of anabolic steroids.

Steroid abuse is part of the larger prescription drug abuse problem, which is the second largest drug abuse problem in the United States. The abuse of anabolic steroids is concentrated among youth and young adults. The websites identified in the report enable Web-savvy youth to easily obtain illicit anabolic steroids.

"None of the steroid websites we reviewed required a prescription, and none used any sort of age verification service," said John Horton, President of LegitScript. "Studies indicate that youth and young adults are the most at risk for illicit steroid use, and these websites are just a fraction of those we identified selling these drugs."

All 156 websites are registered with eight domain name registrars located in the United States. The website operators often use anonymous registration services offered by the registrars, or are located outside of the United States.

Domain name registrars are the entities that register websites for use on the Internet. All US-based domain name registrars require website purchasers to sign a User Agreement that allows termination of the website for illegal conduct.

Three weeks prior to the report's release, LegitScript and KnujOn requested that the US-based domain name registrars terminate, or "take down," the steroid websites identified in the report. However, most of the websites were still accessible at the time of the report's release.

"So far, most of the websites are still active," said Garth Bruen, President of KnujOn. "This is a big problem, and it's important t
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