In April of this year, an unidentified female Hollywood executive filed a civil suit against Match.com. She alleges that she was brutally sexually assaulted by a man she met on the site after their second date. She joins a number of other women in the suit that alleges that Match.com does not do enough to distinguish and weed out online predators.

Match.com is one of the most popular and reputable dating sites in the country. They do verify, as much as is possible, the identities of their members. And, while we certainly can’t speak to any specifics in this lawsuit, it is important to remember that we’re all personally responsible for our own safety.

Online dating sites provide a very convenient and easy way to meet others. However, people often have an unclear understanding about the services provided by dating companies and many have the false belief that members are being personally screened for them. Unless your dating service clearly makes this declaration to you, you should assume meeting somone through this route is no different from meeting someone in a cafè or supermarket. Always take the normal precautions of meeting someone for the first time.

Although online dating can be a scary proposition, many people have also found the love of their lives through this venue. Online dating through reputable sites is relatively safe, but taking precautions is still extremely important. Some of the most important things to remember include:

• Not giving out too much personal information
• Meeting only in public places until you’ve really gotten to know the person
• Looking for red flags, such as a person asking for money or for a lot of personal details early on

All online daters have to follow these guidelines to ensure their own safety. You truly cannot expect a dating site to find every bad apple.

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Online dating for specialty groups of singles has exploded in recent years, especially for gay, lesbian, and bisexual singles. One of the biggest online dating services, eHarmony.com, however, was accused of discriminating against this group of singles and faced a series of lawsuits over their practices. These lawsuits were recently settled and now eHarmony is more openly welcoming gays, lesbians, and bisexual singles to their services.

The lawsuits alleged that eHarmony.com did not do enough to provide visible and appropriate dating services to this large and diverse group of singles, and in fact suggested eHarmony.com actively discriminated against gay, lesbian, and bisexual singles who attempted to join the eHarmony.com community. After a little over two years of negotiating, though, eHarmony.com has agreed to be more proactive about serving this audience of singles and also be more forthright about displaying and providing easy access to their gay, lesbian, and bisexual dating services.

So what does this really mean? The most readily apparent change is that eHarmony.com will make links to their gay, lesbian, and bisexual dating services more visible and accessible from the main eHarmony.com web site. For instance, on the eHarmony.com home page there are currently links to other specialty dating services for seniors, Christians, Hispanics, African Americans, etc.; under the terms of the lawsuit settlement the home page will now display an equally prominent link to a specialty dating service (actually an entirely separate site called Compatibile Partners) for gay, lesbian, and bisexual singles.

This is a big win for singles of all types, as it means even the largest online dating sites cannot use their size and influence to discriminate against specialty groups of singles. Now everyone can expect to receive equal treatment and equally convenient access to the online dating services best suited to their needs.

News & Views Bisexual, Discrimination, eHarmony, Gay, Lawsuits, Lesbian