Well, it’s fair to say it happens to all of us… we meet someone we think might be the one and he/she ends up being a sex offender. It occurs every single time.
What? It’s just me?
Well, for you lucky ones (so far) out there, I’m here to tell you about another way to keep some of those pesky sex offenders out of your life. The website CreepShield let’s you upload a picture of a potential date and it compares it to their alarmingly huge – and ever growing – online database of over 475,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.
CreepShield uses a Facial Recognition Technology Platform developed by FacialNetwork.com (No, not that kind of facial – Ed), allowing you to get immediate possible matches out of the nearly half a million people listed.
In a refreshing change from many decades (or should I say centuries?) of racial profiling, CreepShield’s match results are based solely on facial features, and it may show you similar matches of a different race and gender than the person you were looking for.
Obviously, for more accurate results, pictures where the subject is facing forward with both eyes visible are preferable, so don’t freak out if that blurry selfie of your date only showing 40% of their face gives you some unexpected similar matches. She’s probably not that 6’6’’ white supremacist guy accused of double rape and murder, but just a random match coming from a bad picture (although if that’s still a close match, you might want to reconsider for multiple reasons. I’m just saying.)
The service seems especially useful for online dating. While websites like Tinder and OK Cupid are getting more traffic everyday, the chances of running into sexual predators – of either gender – are higher than ever. Of course, there’s no guarantee that if your date’s picture shows no results he/she won’t be a sex offender, or vice versa, but it’s a start.
It should also be said that the “sex offender” tag groups together a very broad spectrum of people, and in some cases, depending on your own state’s laws, it has even included people who were merely arrested for stuff as innocent as public urination. As a heavy drinker who likes walking back home after a late night bender, I can attest to the fact that it could happen to anyone. Then again, if public urination was a deal breaker for you, this might actually be a good enough filter!
