May 9, 2008 
Sparks are flying between the major players in the online dating industry, but their chemistry is anything but positive. At the heart of the argument is whether online dating services can enhance their clients’ safety by conducting criminal background screenings on would-be daters.
The debate heated up earlier this year following New Jersey becoming the first state to enact a law requiring the sites to disclose whether they perform background checks. True.com - the only large online dating service that already does such screenings - was delighted by its successful lobbying and hopes other states will follow suit.
While True.com CEO Herb Vest insists that he’s trying to rid online dating of the criminal element so offline singles will come online to find their soul mate, his critics say that he’s acting out of his own self-interest. Further, his critics contend that True.com’s screening method - running names through databases of criminal records - is incomplete and creates a false sense of security for customers.
There are no definitive national statistics on serious crimes arising from online dating, but such cases do occasionally make headlines. A Philadelphia man was accused of raping several women he met through Match.com and was recently sentenced to at least 10 years in prison. Last June, a Cleveland firefighter was indicted for raping a woman he met through an online dating site.
Critics of the New Jersey law say the database checking required by the law has inherent flaws: Users could give fake names and many dangerous people may not be in databases.
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(Source: http://www.ap.org)
Tag: online dating
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