Should Match.com screen for sexual predators?

A woman says a man she met on Match.com sexually assaulted her — and now she's demanding that it check its members' names against the sex offender registry

If Match.com were to start checking members' names against the sex offender registry, what else might it be expected to screen for?
(Image credit: Match.com)

A Los Angeles woman claims she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on the popular dating site, Match.com, and she's taking legal action. After a pleasant first date at a coffee shop led to a second date, he allegedly followed her home and forced himself on her. The woman subsequently learned that he had already been convicted on several counts of sexual battery and filed a lawsuit against Match.com, but she's not looking for money. She wants Match.com to check their members' names against sex offender records. Should they?

No, it's a slippery slope: While this is "a horrific story," screening out sex offenders on dating sites isn't the answer, says Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon. First off, sex offender records only tell you so much, and "we already make it hard enough for offenders to reenter society." Secondly, "why limit the background checks to sex crimes?" This would open up the question of what else dating sites should screen for: Past DUIs? Actual singlehood? "If the courts have any relevance here, it should be to address why a man with six convictions for sexual battery was roaming free as a bird."

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