Illinois Laws Would Regulate Online Dating
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jan 26, 2012 11:30PM
Bills have been introduced in the Illinois General Assembly that would require online dating services to increase safety transparency by clearly specifying to members whether they do background checks on their clients.
State Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, introduced a bill into the Senate, stating, "the [dating] service shall disclose whether it has a policy allowing a member who has been identified as having a criminal conviction to have access to its service to communicate with any Illinois member."
State Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg, introduced this similar bill to the House last week. Both bills would require online dating services to make some changes to how they interact with their customers, under the threat of consumer fraud charges at a cost of $50,000.
Dating services that say they do background checks would need to search government databases such as criminal court records and sex offender registries. Sites also would have to say what they do when they find someone with a record, including whether they allow such a person to be in the company's dating pool.
Rep. Jim Sacia, a former FBI agent, told the Tribune he'd oppose the latest version unless online dating services committed to having high-quality background checks. "My greatest fear would be the false sense of security," said Rep. Sacia, R-Pecatonica.
Dating sites would also be required to post online dating safety tips. We were able to find those tips already posted on OkCupid.com, Match.com and eHarmony.com. Both Match.com and eHarmony.com check their membership for sex offenders. A website called True.com even turns away married people, in addition to checking both state and county crime databases.