Cheating is not criminal and we’re all human, but it looks to me like this is a social ill that will only worsen unless something is done to encourage honesty and restrict anonymity. Folks on Facebook, Google+, and dating/hook-up sites should still have the right to an alias, but their partners should be able to find out if they’re on a dating site, for their own protection/sexual health, provided said partner/spouse can prove to the site in question that they’re related to the site member/potential cheater with ID. The goal would not be to restrict the number of potential sexual partners someone could have, but to not make cheating and potentially infecting one’s partner so easy (as it is right now), and to perhaps encourage us to be more honest with ourselves and not get into committed relationships if we can’t handle them/can’t manage monogamy.

It’s an EPIDEMIC of cheating. Men and women cheating on eachother…I noticed a ton of gay, bi, and “straight” men cheating on their wives (and sometimes girlfriends) with dudes too, but that’s a whole other issue with much of society still sucking in that regard and a ton of dudes not having the balls to be honest with themselves and work on accepting the way they are (no idea what the picture looks like for closeted lesbians/bi women on the cheating scale, have no business checking out/signing up for their sites).

Positive–anonymity for folks that need it. Let’s go with the gay/bi population, as another example. Living in areas/countries where their lives could be severely compromised if found out (being fired from jobs or being killed), countries where they can’t simply move to a better town or city to find acceptance and safety. Anonymity is necessary, the internet offers information and a social lifeline for these folks. In these cases, the potential solution I suggested above (partners/spouses being able to legally find them out if they prove their relation) could come into conflict should said partner decide to go to other family or go public with the revelation about the gay/bi individual.

A myriad of complications. No easy solution. I think Google is onto something here with their concerns over easy-anonymity and the ways in which some people abuse (and will continue to abuse) aliases (and I think folks believe they have a RIGHT to privacy online is a little extreme/self-entitled) however, their sledgehammer approach is not the solution.

I also wonder if these schools are thinking of upgrading to MS Office 2010 and Windows 7. Or do you think they are also going to follow the corporate world and transition to OpenOffice.org which is free?

Hope you have a blessed day.