Originally posted by Karen
I know some wonderful, wonderful people that I "met" online first - hey there, Pet Talkers! As I am happily married, I have no need for online dating, but I would give the idea a "yes"" as long as the people in question were both adults, and were careful. There are scary people out there, but that's true in "real life" as well as online. People can lie as well in "real life," too.

Pssst - is this not real life?
I absolutely agree with this. I would say meeting people online is fine as long as you're smart and careful about it. Example: I have met many people from PT and they are all great! LOL

Take eHarmony for instance. The people that participate in eHarmony's services are serious about meeting others, because they take the time to fill out a very in-depth survey (500 questions, I believe) and also pay a fee to be there. Of course, the audience tends to fall in the age range of 35 and above, but from what I've heard (eHarmony is a customer of ours...that's why I know all of this...), the marriages through eHarmony have had far less divorce rates than regular marriages. This is eHarmony's mission, to decrease the rate of divorce in the United States by matching up people that compliment each other, in all aspects: interest, beliefs, etc. Pretty cool, huh?
This is a very interesting topic, actually. For your research paper, take a look at the different types of online dating. There are your reputable services like eHarmony and Soulmatch, and I'm sure there's less reputable services available that you can look into if you want to make a comparison in your paper.

Compare the various services and compare the audience. These are all important factors when meeting people online. Like Karen said, there are scary people out there...both in RL and online. You just have to be smart about it.