From Deseret News archives:
Put safety first when dating online
A handful of Web sites, such as Hotsaints.com, LDSSingles.com and LDSPromise.com, offer matchmaking services geared toward the Latter-day Saint community.
Web site organizers are quick to point out, however, that making smart choices while online are crucial to staying safe while searching for "the one."
"The biggest thing we try to get across is that (the user is) the key to their own safety," said Chantry Brewer, creative and marketing director for LDSSingles.com. "We have safety guidelines posted on the site . . . but in all the cases that we've seen (that have led to problems), they've broken these basic rules."
A high-profile sexual assault allegation serves as a reminder of why those safety rules are so important. In that case, police say a 25-year-old Orem man used a false name while chatting with a woman on Singlesaints.com.
The man and the woman talked off-and-on for a few weeks before the man suggested they meet, according to police. The man picked the woman up at her parents' home, then took her to an empty home where he had been doing cabinetry work, police say. The couple started watching a movie and kissing, which quickly turned into a sexual assault, police allege.
Orem police say the man held the woman hostage for almost 10 hours and raped her repeatedly. The case is winding its way through the legal process.
Kent Parkinson has been charged in connection with the case. On Tuesday he waived a preliminary hearing on 10 counts of rape, two counts of forcible sodomy and a charge of aggravated kidnapping — all first-degree felonies.
If convicted, he could spend life in prison.
In a separate case, Parkinson also faces five second-degree felony charges of forcible sex abuse. Prosecutors allege Parkinson in October 2004 assaulted another woman he met through a Web site.
He is being held in the Utah County Jail on $250,000 cash-only bail.
Although such cases are rare, Internet dating is simply unappealing for some people.
Twenty-two-year-old Natalie Kirtley, a senior at Brigham Young University, said she would never use an online dating service.
"I just couldn't do it," said Kirtley, who is unmarried. "It's not my thing. I just don't trust the person on the other line to be telling the truth."
Although movies and commercials may portray online relationships ending in perfect marital bliss, Kirtley, a psychology major, said she thinks the dependence on technological communication can be a problem.
