Contributed by: ElyseRomano on Monday, February 25 2013 @ 09:53 am
Last modified on
While Americans are wrapped up in the online-love-gone-awry tales of MTV's Catfish and football player Manti Te'o's real life story of being conned by a fake date, Britain is in talks to develop a new code of conduct for online dating.
The pan-industry effort includes the company behind The Times and The Daily Telegraph's dating sites, The Dating Lab, as well as Lovestruck and Christian Connection. Other dating services are also part of the discussion, but have so far declined to be publicly associated with the talks.
It's peak season for the online dating industry, so there's no better time to talk about the important issues plaguing users. Heather Heber Percy, chairwoman of the Association of British Introduction Agencies, told The Observer: "What worries me is that the bigger the market gets, the more it gets all about money rather than emotions and helping people." As a result, online dating scams are becoming increasingly widespread.
The Association of British Introduction Agencies already has a code of conduct, but until recently, few companies had signed up to it. And to make things even worse, the companies themselves are responsible for some of the suspicious behavior on dating sites.
An expose on Channel 4 in November revealed that one agency was employing people to create fake profiles and flirt with other members, to entice them to stay on the site. The investigation into white label dating site Global Personals, which powers sites like Dating Republic, Love2Meet, and FlirtNaughty, uncovered a host of allegations from former employees that Global Personals dupes consumers.
Global Personals claims it has stopped practices like creating false profiles, but they are just one site of many involved in similar actions. The new code of conduct under discussion will affect both users and the agencies providing dating services by ensuring the authenticity of profiles. It will also give companies the power to remove fake identities and cancel the subscriptions of users who are thought to be deceitful.
The talks will address how the industry should set standards around specific issues, like those mentioned above. Other topics to be covered are the protection of users' data and guarantees that adequate levels of customer service are available.
A statement issued jointly on behalf of the dating services involved states: "Online dating has come into its own and is now an entirely normal way for couples to meet. As the industry grows and expands, we want to make it as easy as possible for consumers to make informed choices and to identify the providers that are committed to the highest standards."