By Contributing Author
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With just someone’s name, we can find out loads of information on people even before we meet them. Your friend’s attractive colleague? Look for his relationship status on his Facebook profile. A potential partner? Try to find out if your political views are compatible by scrolling through her Twitter feed.
Of course, when you look through someone’s social media history, you’re only seeing what they want you to see. They can make certain info available only to their friends and family. They can make you think they’re living a far more glamourous life than they really are.
So, your expectations might not be met.
But there are circumstances in which knowing who someone is is important for more than just avoiding disappointment. Sometimes, you’ll want to do a full background check on a person before you choose to trust them. There are services which do this for you – take a look at this Instant Checkmate review for an example.
Here are some of the times it might be a good idea to do a background check.
1. Children’s sleepovers
A while ago, a mother made a bit of a splash online when she wrote a blog post about how she wouldn’t let her daughter sleep over at her friends if a male family member was around. This woman was criticised by some as creating an environment of paranoia and suspicion that her daughter would carry around for the rest of her life. That her daughter would never be able to have a trusting relationship with a man.
But you can understand where this misguided mother was coming from. There are awful people out there who abuse children, sexually and in other ways.
Since you’re probably not going to keep your kids from living a free and socially healthy life, you might want other ways to ensure they’re safe. Performing a background check on your child’s friend’s parents is a way to get some sort of peace of mind.
2. Babysitters
And, staying with the child rearing theme, it’s important to do background checks on anyone who offers to babysit your kids.
I’m not saying that a background check will necessarily give you a definitive answer on whether you can trust the person. If someone has managed to get away with unscrupulous behaviour, you’re not going to find any info on them that they’re not already telling you.
But it is one step you can take towards safer choices for your children.
3. Blind dates
This one is probably going to be controversial. But in reality, why should anyone trust a blind date? Especially if you met them on Tinder! You don’t know anything about them, and there’s a chance (and sometimes expectation) of intimacy.
Performing a background check on a blind date might be a bit too much for the average person. However, if you’re a shadchan or matchmaker of some sort, you definitely need to do your research on the people you’re matching.
Be prudent
Although certain background check services can get you information on anyone and everyone, you should be prudent with them. You don’t want to cultivate suspicion towards everyone you know.
However, they can be very useful when you’re hiring, or making sure of the safety of your kids.
