Josie Phyllis Brown never had a chance against her 2-metre killer, although his stature was one of the few things she should have known from his Internet profile.

John Christopher Gaumer, who confessed to the murder and led Baltimore County police to Brown's body on February 7, listed his height and other attributes in his quest for dates on MySpace.com, a free Internet social site owned by News Corporation where mostly young people connect for friendship and romance.

Some personal profiles on the website are frighteningly revealing. People publish their birth dates, schools they attend, even clubs they will frequent on a given Saturday night, complete with a cell phone number for whomever might care to join them.

"Think about it, there are millions of people we're dealing with here and somehow people think they are all preachers," said Paul Falzone, chief executive of Together Dating service, a company that performs background checks on all members. Falzone says background checks result in 10 per cent of applicants being rejected.

For most of the 40 million people using Internet sites for dating and socialising each month, a disastrous 15 minutes over coffee at Starbucks is the worst they will suffer.

But there is enough danger out there that some US states are considering legislation to force Internet dating sites to police themselves, while companies that do background checks say business is booming.

Screening dates

Only a small percentage of "intimate partner violence" nearly 700,000 such incidents were reported to the US Department of Justice in 2001 originate from Internet dating, according to Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals, which monitors the dating industry.

For upstart online service True.com, even one assault is too much. The site performs background checks on every member, ferreting out sex offenders, felons and married people. About 11 per cent of those who apply are rejected.

"To think a felon could find a victim, especially for a heinous crime, gives me the heebie-jeebies. I do all I can do to prevent that," said Herb Vest, chief executive of True.com.

Nevertheless, Robert Wells, convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, passed the True.com screening and posted a profile on that site. The company is suing him, claiming he committed wire fraud.

The small competitor is pressing for legislation to force big websites like Match.com and Yahoo! to perform background checks, or clearly state they don't. So far, California, Florida, Texas and Michigan have considered legislation.

Yahoo! and Match.com, the industry leaders with 6 million and 15 million monthly visitors respectively, continually stress dating safety.

Match.com forces the 60,000 people who sign up for the service each month to review its safety policies before they subscribe. On both sites, every profile is reviewed and approved by human eyes to screen out excess information or obscenity.

Around 15 per cent of postings are rejected, according to Kristin Kelly, spokesperson for Match.com.

'Piecemeal measures'

That is not enough for some.

"The Internet has its dark side and they are not doing everything they can to keep sexual predators and gold diggers off these sites. If you don't police yourselves, the government will come in and police you," said Michigan State Senator Alan Cropsey.

Cropsey has sponsored a bill that would force websites to do background checks, and it proposes posting a warning label on sites, much like those on cigarette packs.

Cropsey's legislation met vigorous resistance from the online industry.

"There are other ways to get to who that person is, rather than have the government ram a business model down your throat," said Abraham Smilowicz, chief executive of Webdate Inc.

Daters themselves are also stepping forward to create their own safeguards. Companies like Safedate and Honestyonline are springing up to run background checks for individuals and grant their stamp of approval.

Source: China Daily