CHARLOTTE OBSERVER -- Aug 11 -- Reported rape is up 16% in Mecklenburg County this year, fueled by the popularity of Internet dating and online classifieds offering sexual services. Officials also say a higher percentage of victims each year are coming forward to report rape. Nationally, the number of rapes reported to police has increased by 30% since 1993. Craigslist has drawn fire in recent months for its adult services ads. S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster threatened to file criminal charges earlier this year against Craigslist executives. Craigslist and its CEO Jim Buckmaster fired back with a lawsuit, which is pending. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper has also focused attention on MySpace and Facebook over sexual predators trying to contact children.
The full article was originally published at Charlotte Observer, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: "Reported rape is up...fueled by the popularity of Internet dating and online classifieds offering sexual services." Executives of idating and adult dating sites, your comments please. Is this a fair and true statement?
Whilst I'm not familiar with the "Charlotte Observer", I don't believe that the author is in line for a Pulitzer Prize for this article.
It's been very well established that the majority of rape victims know their attacker - to suggest that online dating is responsible for an increase in rape is therefore highly misleading. It's an easy target, but isn't backed up by evidence.
Paid online dating sites must, by the nature of a transactional business, carry out the kind of identity checks that are not done on a free site or a social network.
In order to contact someone on a paid site, you generally need to have used your own credit card and pin which is accurate identification - on free dating sites and social networks there is no such process, allowing a potential perpetrator to remain anonymous.
Either way though, a victim is far more likely to be raped by someone they know, rather than a stranger.
Posted by: Ross Williams - RossWilliams.com | Aug 12, 2009 at 03:53 AM
Online dating sites are certainly making the process of meeting a higher volume of new people easier for singles looking for a relationship or personal encounter. Meeting a new prospective partner through any route - for example, in a bar or club - presents a potential risk, and I would argue that doing so through a responsible dating service which provides members with safety and personal security advice is actually far safer.
In addition, linking the increasing popularity of online dating with reported rape demonstrates a lack of consideration of the measures the industry is increasingly introducing to protect members, as well as the huge differences between sites which simply provide members with a database of potential matches and those which screen or verify all new members.
Security will always be a paramount concern within our industry, and whilst no dating service can completely protect its members from the risks associated with meeting new people, we have a responsibility to do all we can to ensure that potential matches are suitable and well intentioned. This is particularly true of dating services such as Dateline Platinum, to which single people seeking the reassurance that potential partners have been independently verified are increasingly turning.
Posted by: Eddy Ankett | Aug 14, 2009 at 04:12 AM