Comforting? Yes. Weird that they never did this before? Sort of.
Apparently a lot of major online dating sites—like eHarmony, Match.com, and Spark Networks— never really thought to screen their members for any sort of sex offenders. I mean, “not a sex offender” is in my top 10 qualities I look for in a man, and I think I might not be the only one. So thank god these sites are finally taking our wants and needs into consideration.
The new standards are as follows: first, the sites will cross-check names of members against those on the national sex offender registry and, in conjunction, will provide users with guidelines on how to safely use the site, along with an outlet through which to report any suspicious activities. Sounds like a step in the right direction. This is all, of course, in response to a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on Match.com. Not the kind of butterflies we all hope for.
Hopefully the new rules will keep any and all shady activity to a bare minimum in the future. (via Jezebel)
Have you Lovelies had any bad experiences with online dating?
guest
Really? They didn’t already do that? -_-
guest
This is kind of redundant as a) you can just lie about your name, and b) what if your name matches that of a sex offender and you’re innocent? :-/
guest
lol they’ll just all go to plenty of fish.
guest
yea, checking names will keep predators out considering they don’t know how to lie or anything.
rose / 937 posts
Dude, it’s not like you are able to scan for sex offenders irl, so clearly a woman can be assaulted even if she meets the guy at, say, a library. It doesn’t matter where you meet someone, if you aren’t smart enough to play it safe in order to best avoid any situations like these then you shouldn’t be dating (and not victim blaming, just saying that if you are going to put all the work onto someone else to check out whether your date is safe – when those measures aren’t even close to fool-proof – then you really should just stay at home) Perhaps things like 1) go out on a date in a crowded place and 2) meet each other instead of having him pick you up and drop you off.
And as pointed out, people lie. Names, ages, photos… so it’s unlikely that something like this will be that helpful unless they like… make people create their accounts at an actual specific location where an employee scans their fingerprints and THEN checks for a criminal record.
guest
Come on.. they just did this for comfort because sex offenders can & often change their names. Just be smart & meet at a coffee shop or another open, well occupied place. My family laughed at me because I planned a date at Papa Ginos with a guy I met on okcupid but I knew it would be busy, brightly lit & easy to escape if things went wrong.