True today announced that it is launching a state-by-state campaign in support of legislation requiring online dating services to conduct criminal background checks or to prominently disclose to its members if an online dating service chooses not to provide this safety-enhancing service. Already garnering strong support in the company’s home State of Texas, Senator John Carona and State Representative Will Hartnett have joined True’s safety movement as sponsors of the legislation. Release is here.
The first thing that caught my eye was the statement that “True is the only online relationship service that actively promotes increasing the safety of its members by performing extensive criminal screening on its communicating member.” That’s hogwash, everyone in the industry knows that Identify Verification is the Next Big Thing in online dating. Verification is an incredibly complicated process, from effective marketing to consumer through to the actual deliverable. It’s Day One and no one has it figured out yet. Verified Person and Trufina are in play, and to some extent Rapsheets, and we’ll have to see how things shake out over the coming months.
Legislation at this point is like passing a spam bill in 1995, as an industry we need to collectively discuss the issues and come up with a game plan before heading up to the Hill.
“True stands alone as the world’s preeminent online relationship service.” Huh?
