Over 177,000 Australian students have signed up to ‘sugar daddy’ websites – which link wealthy older men with young women seeking income – in order to pay for their tuition fees and living expenses, according to a 60 Minutes report.
While sites such as Seeking Arrangement promise ‘love and romance’ for lonely benefactors, critics have accused them of glamorising sex work and endangering young women whose university careers might depend on their ‘sugar baby’ income.
Mixed experiences
While ‘sugar babies’ are not necessarily offering sex, the majority of them do engage in sexual activity with the men that fund them – often generously.
However, there are doubts about the sites’ capacity to deal with violent ‘sugar daddies’, with some sites unwilling to hand out bans to serial offenders.
