Rhodri Marsden: Safety is key, but you can't always avoid the creeps

While internet dating can be just as exciting or gruelling for both sexes, the issue of safety isn't one that's shared equally.

Only one person at any boy-girl encounter arranged online will be assessing whether the meeting place is sufficiently public, keeping one eye on excessive alcohol consumption, waiting for a friend to text at 9pm to check that all is well and planning a discreet escape route in case of uneasiness.

Email correspondence is, according to my female friends, usually enough to filter out suspicious types, but one can never be 100 per cent sure.

Match.com's new policy will, one hopes, keep dangerous men off the site, at least in the US.

But until the unlikely establishment of a national register of overbearing, creepy men, the standard safety advice is worth following to the letter.