How honest should you be on a first date? Generally, it's considered OK to talk about work, family and holidays. Discussion of exes should be avoided, and it's best not to mention intimate tattoos, shameful things you may have done on Greek islands, or your irritable bowel syndrome flare-ups, unless your prospective partner is really persistent when it comes to finding out why you won't go halves on the cheeseboard.

But what about babies? When I was a single lady, popular culture taught me that the quickest and most effective way to make a possible paramour run away screaming was to announce that you hoped to be married and pregnant with twins within the next five years. In fact, some of my friends used that very technique to ditch unsuitable suitors before pudding. But why should talking about your future hopes and plans make you seem desperate or needy?

French actor Emmanuel Limal, despaired at this state of affairs and, now living in Copenhagen, set up the Danish dating site Babyklar.nu, or Baby Ready Now, for singles who want to meet someone to start a family with. In an interview, Limal revealed that men make up 53% of the site's membership. This seems surprising – in the media it is often suggested that women are the ones who are most keen to procreate. If we're single, we're meant to be sobbing into our white wine and worrying that there aren't enough shoes in the world to fill our baby void, while our male counterparts are meant to be staring into the distant mountains with nothing but a fringed leather jacket for company, like the Marlboro Man.

But I know plenty of men, single and in relationships, who plan to start a family either "some day" or in the immediate future. And I know plenty of women, myself included, whose answer to the baby question is either "no" or "not sure". Getting married and having children is no longer more or less inevitable for everyone. And when something so big can cause such a difference of opinion, doesn't it make sense to be sure when you're setting off on the path to happiness that it's with someone who's on the same page as you?

If you are looking for love online, there's a good chance that you've been in enough relationships to know who and what you're searching for, as well as what won't work for you. The internet is just one of a variety of places that you might meet people to hook up and have fun with; new apps such as Tinder are great for matching people with the same short-term priorities.

But if you reach a point in your life when you want to have children, it makes sense to use a site that's as serious about it as you are. You might bump into someone great in a bar or bookshop, but even if the chemistry is off the scale, the levels of compatibility might not be. Ultimately a mutual love of Martin Amis and cheese and onion crisps are not enough to sustain a long-term relationship on their own. Limal's site allows its users to fall for each other over the little details, safe in the knowledge that they agree on the major ones.

It would be nice to see more forward-thinking dating site creators following Limal's lead. But it would be even nicer if the existence of Babyklar.nu encouraged everyone who is dating to be more upfront and honest with each other about their life plans. Your online profile might match you with someone who also loves wearing vintage brogues and skipping through meadows, but it needs to be clear from the start if the idea of children is going to send one of you running to the hills.