Nigerian Love

This story was running on BBC Breakfast this morning and they had some guy on who runs a 'reputable dating agency' online. He called for 'tough new regulations' to force dating sites to ensure that people registering on them are who they say they are. I guess that would be convenient for him and his company in that it would make it a hell of a lot harder for new firms to set up their own competing dating services. And I wonder why it is that if this 'prove who you are' system is so demanded, why isn't it already offered? I mean, it's not impossible for a private company to do it, plenty of websites already do it. Surely if people really wanted that kind of service, someone would have provided it or will do soon? And if it's not demanded, why should we force it on people who don't want it?

This goes way beyond market interference though, has anyone considered the controls necessary to enforce such regulation? After all, anyone can set up a UK dating site abroad and thus circumvent the rules... unless we set up a Chinese-style national firewall and start blocking anything that we deem unsuitable - nanny knows best. And what comes next? If we can end anonymity on dating sites, we can (and eventually will) end anonymity everywhere else on the internet. They've done it in Korea.