Ohio Joins True's Online Dating Safety Campaign

(onlinedatingmagazine.com - July 12, 2004) Less than a week after launching its national legislation campaign seeking to protect online daters from interacting with sexual predators and criminals, today True announced that it has secured legislative support in a second key state -- Ohio. State Representatives William J. Seitz and Scott Oelslager from Ohio are the second group of lawmakers to embrace True's monumental legislative movement, joining Senator John Carona and Representative Will Hartnett of Texas.

True's proposed safety legislation requires that all online dating services conduct felony and sexual offense background searches on their members. Additionally, the legislation proposes that any online dating service that fails to implement such increased safety measures must prominently warn their potential members of this serious security deficiency on their Website. Currently, True claims to be the only online relationship service that actively promotes the safety of its members by performing extensive criminal screening on all of its communicating members.

"With the growing popularity of Internet dating, we must do everything we can as a legislative body to protect our citizens from criminal predators," said William J. Seitz, 30th Ohio House District, Greater Cincinnati; Chairman, House Civil and Commercial Law Committee; and Partner, Taft, Stettinius and Hollister law firm. "This proposed legislation is about reducing current and future criminal activity online. Just last week, a distraught member of another online dating service contacted us, reporting that she had been matched with a convicted felon by the dating site's 'matching' system. Thankfully, the member realized that this individual was a felon before engaging in any communication, but not everyone is that lucky," said Herb Vest, founder and CEO of True. "As an industry, we have an obligation to increase the safety of our customers to the greatest extent possible, and that's exactly what this legislation will accomplish."