Apr 14 -- The House Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-to-2 in favor of HB 1035, and members of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Services Committee voted 6-to-2 in support of SB 1768.
The bills would require providers of online dating services to disclose
if they do or do not conduct criminal background checks on their
clients. When True first applied the background checks to their
database, True.com screened out 11% of its site applicants. In Florida
alone, there were more than 475 instances where site applicants were
found to have sexual offenses felony convictions or provided false or
inaccurate information. "We have an opportunity to help Florida's users
of online dating services. They have a right to know if criminal
background checks are or are not being conducted on members they are
talking to online and possibly meeting," said HB1035's sponsor
Representative Kevin Ambler. "This disclosure requirement is an
important public safety measure that will help safeguard honest
Floridians from dangerous sexual predators and convicted felons looking
for potential victims." The legislation further requires firms who do
run criminal background checks to disclose that the screening is not
fool-proof and also to provide consumers with safer dating tips. RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: The legislation still needs to get past another committee stage before final vote. ConfirmID was an early attempt at ID confirmation by FriendFinder. It bombed.
Users won't pay for background checks en masse unless it is
incorporated into standard service offerings. When a man is interested
in a woman he needs to communicate... a. he's interested b. he's safe.
On the one hand, the more online dating can improve over the real world
(i.e. meeting someone at a bar), the better the industry will do. On
the other hand, background checks are a tough pill to swallow,
especially when rammed down the industry's throat with legislation.
True.com's CEO has had practice at driving through legislation. HD Vest
was based on an illegal business model. Herb Vest made it legal. This
juggernaut will not stop. Time to take the background checks
legislation more seriously.