NY laws to protect dating
By Techgirl

It was hard enough to understand the language of love in the real world, and it becomes harder still on the internet.  A guy may present himself as Shahrukh and he may turn out to be Shakti Kapoor.  A man may look as non threatening to women as Karan Johar but may turn out to be another Shiny.

India, like many parts of Asia, is conservative when it comes to dating and interaction with the opposite sex.  Despite the urban myths in Mumbai and Bangalore, casual relations and friends with benefits are more fantasies than reality.  Despite being well backed, friendship and dating sites have never gained traction in India. Bizarre as it is, many Indian men and women log on to Shaadi sites to even date. Marriage is used as a cover to meet eligible people.

Not surprisingly, many of my girl friends have horror stories about meeting men via the net.

What about New York?  Per capita, New York is the richest city in America and arguably has the most street smart citizens.  Like Mumbai, if you can make your way around New York, you can survive in any part of the world.

Despite its reputation of being street smart, the New York legislature found it necessary to pass the Internet Dating Safety Act this week.  Under the new law,  every dating and marriage website would have to reiterate to all the singles  looking for love online to “never include your last name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, place of work and any other identifying information in your Internet profile or initial e-mail messages.”.   Such websites will also have to tell their members that they should inform someone trusted if they are meeting a person for the very first time.  And that any such meeting should be in a public place.

Could we see such laws in India?

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com