Lots of Central New Yorkers go online looking for love.

States including New York are trying to make it safer to date online. Bills are pending in Connecticut, Texas and New York to provide more information to customers about the dangers of using the internet to line up dates. New York lawmakers want to beef up a recent law that provided daters with a list of safety tips, such as not revealing personal information to a potential date.

Rick Trunfio, the first chief assistant district attorney in Onondaga County, says people who online date have a responsibility themselves. Trunfio says even if legislation is passed, people can't abandon common sense.

"If you're an adult and you're on an online dating service, you should exercise the same caution and restraint that you would if you met a stranger at a bar, it's really no different," Trunfio says. "In fact, I would suggest that it's worse. It's more safe to meet someone at a bar because at least you're in a public place."

Trunio says online dating can create a false sense of trust because you don't know if people are giving their real names and photos so even if a check is done, you don't know it's right.

"Whether we have legislation or not, we shouldn't abandon our common cense in terms of interaction with people and I think that's the problem with this digital age and social networking and online anything is the basic human principals of common sense and responsibility and obligation that you would normally have exercised have kind of gone out the window because of this false environment of that you have from the safety of your home," Trunfio said.

A few days ago, Match.com announced it will begin checking existing and new subscribers against the national sex offender registry.

"For years we've been periodically evaluating the practicality of conducting these checks in connection with our service," said Mandy Ginsberg, President of Match.com, U.S. "However, their historical unreliability has always led us to conclude against it. In recent conversations with providers over the last few days, we've been advised that a combination of improved technology and an improved database now enables a sufficient degree of accuracy to move forward with this initiative, despite its continued imperfection.

"We want to stress that while these checks may help in certain instances, they remain highly flawed, and it is critical that this effort does not provide a false sense of security to our members. With millions of members, and thousands of first dates a week, Match.com, like any other large community, cannot guaranty the actions of all its members. Match.com is a fantastic service, having changed the lives of millions of people through the relationships and marriages it has given rise to, but people have to exercise common sense and prudence with people they have just met, whether through an online dating service or any other means."

Trunfio advises if you are online dating, don't give out personal information when you first start talking to someone and always be skeptical of the information you're getting. He says once you've built up enough trust to meet the person, make sure you do it in a public place.

"Anybody that would blindly go to meet someone that they met online without doing their own safety check or exercising any common sense, that's problematic," Trunfio says. "Basically what you are doing is meeting a stranger because you don't know who it is."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.