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.

News & Views Lawsuits, Match.com, Sexual Assult, Violence

If the claims of dating companies are to be believed, we are moving towards an age where meeting your significant other from behind a computer screen (or a mobile phone) is the norm rather than the exception! Facts and figures about the success of online dating services are not in short supply. For instance, EHarmony now claims credit for 5% percent of all new marriages in the US. Their main competitor, Match.com, together with research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey conducted a study which indicated that one in six marriages (17%) over the past three years was between couples who met via a dating website.

Just to put that into perspective, the findings of the Match.com study showed that twice as many marriages in the US took place between people who met online, than in bars, clubs and social events combined. Meanwhile, the world’s largest free site, Plentyoffish claims on its home page that 20,000 new singles are joining the site every day.

But just how realistic are these statistics?

Dating companies clearly have a vested interest in advertising the success and popularity of online dating. So just how realistic are these claims? Independent estimates of the numbers of visitors to online dating sites certainly seem to confirm them. With several thousand online dating sites in operation in 2011, and over 200 million active personal profiles, this means that about 1 in 5 (20%) of today’s internet users have a dating profile (excluding social networking sites which can also be used for dating).

However people have different motivations for joining a dating site. Not all are looking for a committed relationship, as a significant proportion of dating profiles are posted on adult oriented sites. Others sign-up because knowing other people still find them desirable makes them feel good about themselves. Even taking these cases into account, the findings of the dating companies do seem to be entirely plausible.

While internet dating is clearly a popular and growing phenomenon, we’ll have to wait a few more years yet before we find out how successful online marriages are in the long-term.

News & Views Dating Business, eHarmony, Marriage, Match.com, PlentyOfFish.com

Summer time is in high gear, and that means plenty of opportunities to get “out and about” to meet other singles. Online dating services are of course a great way to meet up with someone whose interests match with your own, but there will always be a role for in person, face to face interactions when it comes to the dating world.

That’s why Match.com conducted its annual Singles Summer Travel Survey to find the very best places for singles to travel this year if they want to find lots of opportunities to meet other singles.

And this year’s winner? Miami, Florida, of course! Who wouldn’t want to take a summer trip to this beautiful city which is also home to some of the most beautiful beaches to be found anywhere?

In fact, it is the availability of beautiful beaches that most singles say is one of the major deciding factors in their choosing of a summer vacation destination. A great beach is a “must have” for over 70% of the singles who responded to the survey, with a great swimming pool coming in a distant second with about 43% of the singles saying it was a “must have” for them.

If you can’t make it to Miami this year, though, take heart because there are a number of other great beach destinations that are also top picks for singles. These include Manhattan Beach, California; Waikiki Beach, Hawaii; and South Padre Island, Texas. So wherever you might be, there’s a great beach near you for meeting and connecting with other singles this summer!

News & Views Holidays, Match.com, Summer, Survey