One major backer of the legislation is True.com, which claims to be the only online dating service to ban anyone with a record from joining, The Miami Herald said. Some opponents of the bill suggest that other Web services do not do checks because they are completely unreliable.

"This doesn't have to do with online predators as the bill says," Bill Ashworth, a lobbyist with Yahoo!, told members of the Senate Commerce Committee. "This is a food fight between True.com and the rest of the Internet dating industry."

The committee released the bill in a close vote. Similar measures have failed to win legislative approval in the past.

Republican Sen. Steve Oelrich, a former Alachua County sheriff, said the bill, if it becomes law, might give dating service members a false sense of security, convincing them that "Jack the Ripper" is "Jack Robertson."