Proposals in Illinois Would Require Disclosure of Background Checks on Online Dating Websites

Springfield, Ill. - In online dating, who’s using the sites, whose job it is to figure out if any of them are “creeps?”

A proposed Illinois state law would require dating-websites to prominently post whether they do criminal background checks on their members.

The information would have to be displayed in several spots on dating websites. For example, it might come up when you go to email someone, or when you receive an email from someone.

Internet matchmaking is huge in America.

Researchers found in just one month last year, the biggest dating sites had a total of 593 million visits to their sites.

Customers pay about $1 billion dollars each year to for online dating services, and we all know there are risks.

One thing about the Internet: it's real easy to lie about yourself, or at least hide the full truth.

The concern some lawmakers have is about sex offenders and other criminals in the dating pool. The law would not require background checks, but it may put pressure on websites to do them.

Match.com and E-Harmony said they already screen members’ sex offenses. True.com said it also does that, plus it checks for all felony convictions.

FOX Chicago News Skyped with the Chicago columnist and blogger, Gina B Thursday night.

Her opinion is that the Illinois law would be good. It might help weed out dangerous people from dating sites.

But she warns the law would not make online dating foolproof. Background checks do not flag people who are just full of baloney.

"That will not protect you against people lying about general things like what they may do for a living, how much money they make,” the relationship columnist said.

“I went on an online date several years ago with someone who lied about his entirely nationality, which was very strange,” Gina B said. “These are things that a background check will not determine."

Lori Andrews, a law professor at Chicago Kent College who specializes in internet work, made another point.

She said pressure to do background checks might be enough to make some dating websites collapse. The checks can be expensive to carry out.

Andrews also asked how far this would go – would bars need to do background checks before allowing patrons entrance in the future?

Gina B recommends searching people on Google and checking circuit court records online.