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The bill, S-1977, would mandate that Internet dating services doing business in New Jersey advise whether their users have undergone criminal background checks and warn that those checks are not necessarily foolproof.
The bill, sponsored by Senate President Richard Codey, D-Essex, was unanimously approved by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
If enacted, the measure would make New Jersey the fourth state to adopt legislation requiring such disclosure of whether criminal background checks are required of online dating services. Florida passed a similar bill last year; Michigan and Texas did in 2005.
Codey's bill mandates dating-service Web sites to post safety-awareness notifications, such as:
- "Anyone who is able to commit identity theft can also falsify a dating profile."
- "There is no substitute for acting with caution when communicating with any stranger who wants to meet you."
- "Never include your last name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, place of work, or any other identifying information in your Internet profile or initial e-mail messages."
- "Stop communicating with anyone who pressures you for personal or financial information or attempts in any way to trick you into revealing it."
- "If you choose to have a face-to-face meeting with another member, always tell someone in your family or a friend where you are going and when you will return."
- "Never agree to be picked up at your home. Always provide your own transportation to and from your date and meet in a public place with many people around."
If the dating service does not conduct criminal background screenings on its members, it must say so to all New Jersey members, clearly and conspicuously, in bold, capital, 12-point letters. The disclosure must be made on e-mails sent or received by a New Jersey member, on the profile describing a member to a New Jersey member and on the Web page used when a New Jersey member signs up.
If the service conducts criminal background screenings, it must disclose prominently whether it has a policy of allowing members identified as having criminal convictions to have access to its service to communicate with any New Jersey member.
It also must state that criminal background screenings are not foolproof, that criminals may circumvent even the most sophisticated search technology and that only publicly available convictions are included in the screening.
Violations of the bill would be deemed a violation of the Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq.
The bill includes a safe harbor for Internet service providers who serve as intermediaries for the transmission of electronic messages among members of an Internet dating service.
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