State panel OK’s Internet dating-service bill
March 28, 2008 by gayla
Filed under Relationships
The ”Internet predator awareness and online safety act” has been approved at the state Senate’s Commerce Committee despite the objections of companies such as Yahoo! and Match.com.
The bill would require any Internet dating service to disclose online and by e-mail whether or not it conducts a criminal background check. The site would have to tell a user if it allows members to have criminal records, but it doesn’t have to say what that record is.
Match.com doesn’t conduct background searches because they’re so unreliable, something that Republican Senator and former Alachua County Sheriff Steve Oelrich confirmed. He said criminal background checks are iffy things and would give ”a false sense of comfort” to users who could think that a ”Jack the Ripper” was really a ”Jack Robertson” until it’s too late.
Only the True.com dating service bans anyone with a criminal background from belonging, according to committee testimony. That led senators and rivals to question the company’s motives in pushing the bill. They noted that online networking sites, such as MySpace, are far more likely places for predators to lurk for children than dating-service sites.
Via: Miami Herald
