Online dating is gaining more and more popularity with people nowadays, as it has a number of assets over actual dating: it is less time-consuming, and it allows the participants to combine other activities with dating. [slide 2] Moreover, such an option is good for people living far away from each other as they can try communicating prior to actually seeing one another, which can save them from wasting their time and eliminate disappointment [slide 3]. However, many research studies show that there still is a high rate of disappointment that is not connected with getting to know a person. On the contrary, it lies in not getting to know the person how he or she really is. Online dating allows people to hide their real identities and deceive those who are communicating with them (Lo et al. 1755). [slide 4] [slide 5] According to research, females are more likely to give deceitful information about themselves on dating websites. [slide 6] What is worse, dating websites are frequently used by maniacs or money fraudsters whose aims are quite far from being romantic. For instance, research by Whitty and Buchanan (182) shows that by mid-2011, there were nearly 230,000 victims of dating websites scams in Great Britain.
The proposed advocacy campaign is designed with the purpose of protecting people from the illegal conduct of those who use online dating websites to deceive others. What may start as friendly and romantic communication can turn into an attempt to scam internet users by playing on their feelings. [slide 7] As you can see, there are frequent occasions when internet users of dating websites establish friendly or even romantic relationships with naïve people and then try to take away their money by deceiving them. Unfortunately, even after numerous warnings, there are still many users who do not consider the scam problem seriously enough and think that it may happen to anyone but them. To eliminate the occurrence of such cases, serious measures should be taken which would disable illegal activity on dating websites.
Therefore, I suggest that biometric scanners should be employed by everyone who wants to use online dating websites. Such scanners are very easy to apply. A program scans the user’s fingerprint. After collecting the data, it compares it to the police records and checks whether this user presents any threat to other people. [slide 8] The demand for applying a scanner does not mean that the person will be banned from using social or dating websites. However, it will give other users information about the person’s past criminal record, and, thus, it will make people cautious about getting too intimate with such a person. In case when someone has a history of drug dealing, gender-based assault, or cyberbullying, such a user will be blocked out of dating websites.
The biometric scanner is an efficient idea as it is compatible with smartphones. The majority of such appliances have a fingerprint function used to lock and open the phone. The only kind of expenses one will have to pay is for the application services. However, a small payment for an app will save people from huge problems concerned with scams or bullying, the outcomes of which may be far more costly than that. Once such scanners are accepted as a policy on dating websites, people will have no other choice but to agree to use them. The biometric scanner benefits the users by ensuring that their privacy is protected and guaranteeing that the sites avoid damages costs.
Until scanning technology is introduced at the government level, people should be cautious about sharing their personal data and trusting others. [slide 9] It is much easier to predict an adverse situation than to deal with the aftermath. I am convinced that the proposed campaign will make dating more pleasant and will help to match many happy couples. Online or offline dating – it is important to remain cautious and sober-minded until you can totally trust a person. In my opinion, this process will become much easier with the implementation of a biometric scanner for using online dating services.
Works Cited
Lo, Shao-Kang, et al. “Contradictory Deceptive Behavior in Online Dating.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 29, no. 4, 2013, pp. 1755-1762.
Whitty, Monica T., and Tom Buchanan. “The Online Romance Scam: A Serious Cybercrime.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, vol. 15, no. 3, 2012, pp. 181-183.