By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-04-22 14:40:43 | Word Count: 664
A few days ago a woman from Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against Match.com, a widely popular dating site. Match.com uses compatibility to connect users that are looking for love and often a serious relationship that will lead to marriage. Before users can view potential suitors, they must provide extensive information relating to their background, likes, dislikes, characteristics, traits, looks, values and goals. Users that form a match based on compatibility can then arrange to communicate and meet with each other. A first date for people that meet through Match.com is more like a fifth date because of all the background information that is provided before the date.
So why would this woman be suing them? It isn’t because she got matched with a person that she didn’t like. It isn’t because they overcharged her account. Sadly, it is much more serious than many might expect. The L.A. woman alleges that she was matched with someone that should have never made it onto the site in the first place. Apparently, the woman went on a date with another Match.com user and the date went well. A second date was schedule but only this time, there were no calls for a third date. The guy ended up following the woman home, breaking into her home and sexually assaulting her. After the woman did a little digging, she discovered that the many was a registered sex offender that had been convicted of multiple counts of sexual battery.
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Now she is suing Match.com in order to force them to cross reference user profiles against public sex offender registries to prevent this from happening to someone else. The filing calls for the Los Angeles County Superior court to disallow Match.com from adding any new user accounts until they comply with this request and make their screening process more rigorous and safe. This would be done through an injunction. Before, Match.com upheld that using public sex offender registries was not a very accurate way to rule out potentially harmful users. They claimed that there are many inaccuracies with these registries. A few days after the lawsuit was filed, Match.com released a statement saying that they would now be looking into the backgrounds of users to make sure that sexual predators are not allowed to prey on other users. Match.com neglected to mention that this new method of operation had anything to do with the lawsuit.
I feel like Match.com should have been screening for sexual predators a long time ago. Why did it take a lawsuit and a sexual assault to make them wake up and take action? I wouldn’t be surprised if this concern had been raised before, but profits probably helped to make the decision to accept everybody. If sexual predators are on Match.com, one of the more reputable dating sites, I can only imagine on what other sites they are on in abundance. People that go on dates with practical strangers should always be cautious and careful. Anything can happen, but it would help to know that the site that is putting you together has a vested interest in your safety.
