Missing the point?

From a press release I got this morning:

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Jan. 4, 2006 – Naughty America today announced a contractual arrangement with Sentry (www.sentryweb.com), the leader in online identity verification services, to provide identity and background verification for its newly announced MMO, Naughty America: The Game. This is the first such arrangement for Sentry in the world of online gaming.

~ snip ~

Each member subscribing to Naughty America: The Game will have the option of providing personal information which will be instantly verified through Sentry. This includes an immediate check of the user to detect a criminal and/or sexual offender history. Upon completing the Sentry process and obtaining verification, a special seal will appear on the member’s personal profile, indicating to other players that their background screen contained no negative information. This is updated every three months and will allow the entire gaming community to be a safer and more secure place.

The only reason this doesn't bother me too much is that it's optional. Of course, it's always optional – don't like a site's policy, don't join the site – but in this case you'll be able to try out the game without going through a huge screening process.

Yet I still have a gnawing discomfort inside about the trend this represents. It's like True.com's founder lobbying for legislation that would require online dating services to perform criminal background checks on everyone.

It's not that I really want to go out with an ex-con, although I have a sushi buddy with a checkered past and he's no scarier to go out with than anyone else. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my worst legal infraction is a speeding ticket five years ago. (Well, and I apparently broke some laws when I was visiting a cyberlover in Georgia, but we weren't caught.)

Yet to have every dating service and online game checking us all out strikes me as overly invasive.

What happened to the pretend-anonymity of the internet, where you could explore your sexual self safely in the illusion of privacy?