Match.com to weed out sex offenders

2011-04-18 10:07

Los Angeles - Online dating site Match.com says it will begin screening its users against the US national sex offender registry.

The president of the popular singles site Mandy Ginsberg tells The Associated Press in a statement on Sunday that the company has avoided the move for years because of the unreliability of the database, but after looking at recent improvements has decided to start screening both current and new subscribers.

Ginsberg says the checks "remain highly flawed" in finding dangerous sex offenders, and that users of the dating service should not have a false sense of security.

Last week, a California woman filed a lawsuit against the website, saying she was sexually assaulted by a man she met through Match.com, and that the attack could have been prevented with a criminal background check.

- AP