United States Federal Law, under Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Part I, Section 231, states the following:
"Whoever knowingly and with knowledge of the character of the material, in interstate or foreign commerce by means of the World Wide Web, makes any communication for commercial purposes that is available to any minor and that includes any material that is harmful to minors shall be fined not more than $50,000, imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both."
The law goes on to say.....
"It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the defendant, in good faith, has restricted access by minors to material that is harmful to minors -
(A) by requiring use of a credit card, debit account, adult access code, or adult personal identification number;
(B) by accepting a digital certificate that verifies age; or
(C) by any other reasonable measures that are feasible under available technology."
Because of this law, and because Close Encounters utilizes advertising revenue to cover the costs of operating our website, it can be argued that Close Encounters is a COMMERCIAL website.
And because we have sexually explicit photos posted in our web site, we are REQUIRED BY LAW to use a Credit Card, or other similar technology, to make a reasonable attempt to restrict access, and to verifiy the age of each user.
We hope this clarifies our position on this issue, and helps each of you to better understand why we have to take these measures.  We appreciate each and every one of you for registering to our website.