Internet dating service True.com offers criminal background checks and reports married people who are playing single to authorities. Now its owner wants states to require other online dating services to do the same or disclose that they do not.
The proposal may not catch on the way True.com hopes.
Six states, including Florida and Texas, have been considering such measures, but bills in the two states are already dead, while one in Ohio remains under consideration.
“If this goes through, you would see companies that offer online dating services quickly start running background checks,” Ohio Rep. W. Scott Oeslager, who is backing the bill in his state, told Columbia News Service.
"Before True members are allowed to communicate with you, they are screened by Rapsheets.com, the largest database of criminal records on the Internet," says a notice at a True.com home page link. "Anyone with a felony conviction recorded in this database is automatically prevented from communicating with you."
Critics have said True.com is preying on unsubstantiated or exaggerated fears about online dating safety by promoting the flawed remedy of background checks.
Dallas-based True.com could not be reached for comment before this story went to press, although chief executive Herb Vest told CNS he believes background check disclosures could be discriminatory.
"Unfortunately, it’s absolutely true [that this legislation] is discriminatory against criminals,” said Vest, the son of a man killed during a crime. “But if that hurts their feelings, it doesn’t bother me a bit."
Match.com senior public relations director Kristin S. Kelly told AVNOnline.com that the legislative proposals aren't likely to survive. They didn't in Vest's home state of Texas nor in Florida, and may not in the six other states considering legislation.
"In Florida it was defeated, and in Texas it didn't have the support to come to a floor vote and both legislatures have adjourned," Kelly said. "It's an interesting issue and one we're going to stay on top of. We believe passionately that what True is doing is not right, and we want to continue to be vigilant about it."
Kelly also said her company is trying to discourage media coverage because it only gives True publicity for a policy she thinks is wrongheaded. She believes True.com is playing too heavily on the fear factor to be truly credible in the long term.
"The background check industry is riddled with problems," Kelly said. "It sounded good on the surface, but very quickly in the states where it got to a certain point, every legislator we talked to did what we did: looked closer and saw that the closer you look the worse it looks. … Every player in the industry [testifying to state legislatures about the proposed bills] was united on this and concerned for the implications for interstate commerce on the Internet."
