Sodahead ?

I go to Sodahead.com & answer ?'s from time to time & today's ? for me was, "Should Match.com screen for criminals?"  My answer:

 An adult person's safety is first & foremost their own responsibility. What makes a criminal? Is it that they've had a speeding ticket? They pissed in a college fountain? They shop-lifted? They got busted with a public intoxication citation? Or are we talking about violent offenses? Then are we talking about all violent offences or will we limit it too things like domestic battery & sexual assault, while leaving out barroom brawls? There are a lot of factors to be addressed before an online dating service can be held responsible for screening its applicants' criminal histories. Would you like to have their credit checked as well? To end this, there are a ton of sites online that will do background searches. If a person is in a position to be concerned about someone else's background (like dating a total stranger they met through Match.com), then they might want to do a background search & find out for themselves. That is if they can get a real name out of the person they're trying to hook up with.

I truly believe safety is mostly a personal  issue.   It pisses me off that an adult has to wear a seat-belt or a helmet on a motorcycle.  If they get killed it was their own doing & to hell with the do-gooders trying to save them.  It's called Darwinism.  All these do-gooders are really concerned about are themselves any way.  What will I do if so & so dies because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt?  Damn Nags.

Again I ask whose definition of criminal shall we use?  I bet the majority of us all have had at least one run in with the law.  If all of those people who have had run-ins couldn't be on match.com, then who would be left?  A few boring, plain vanillia, socially defunct people who have never had any fun in their lives.  Yeah, that sounds like a fun date.

As for the background search, I normally oppose these things, but then again I oppose meeting people to date online as well.  Call me old-fashioned (HA!), but I think you should get to know people face to face, most likely at their place after your first bout of sex.  Hey, it may've been closing time, but that didn't mean you had to go home, at least not your home.  Background searches have their place, like for employers & I guess nowadays for people who use online dating services.

Match.com shouldn't be held responsible for your safety or screening for criminals.  Then again Match.com shouldn't be used for dating, thats what bars, churches, street corners & Craigs List are for, silly.