The Ministry of Solidarity and Health is launching a national campaign on Monday to prevent and raise awareness of child prostitution.
On TikTok, many videos glamorize the fact of being "Sugarbaby", that is to say, selling your services - including sexual services - to older men.
However, between social networks and reality, there is a chasm that the teenage girls who watch these videos do not always realize.
Bundles of banknotes, gourmet dishes, luxurious hotels, etc.
While the Ministry of Solidarity and Health is launching a prevention campaign on child prostitution on Monday, a myriad of videos glamorize sex work on TikTok.
On the favorite social network for teenagers, the hashtag "sugarbaby" has gathered more than 1.2 billion views.
The term, born in the United States more than twenty years ago, refers to young women who sell their time and, often, their sexual services to older men.
These are nicknamed "sugardaddy".
From TikTok to TikTok, sugarbaby rhymes with luxury: handbags, yachts, jewelry, champagne, etc.
All this often to the sound of the eponymous song by Qveen Herby who is pleased that his Sugardaddy “gives him all his money”.
Commercial sex is almost always silenced and the money presented as easy.
@sugarbabesdxb
#sugarbaby #sugarbabytiktok #dubai #uae #sugardaddie
♬ Sugar Daddy - Qveen Herby
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"She's just an indoor whore"
“Sugarbabies are just prostitution under another name, prostitution in disguise,” indignant Fabienne El-Khoury, spokesperson for the abolitionist association Osez le féminisme.
“Many minors idealize prostitution and don't talk about it like that, teenage girls prefer the term escorting,” agrees Hélène Dohu, a sociologist specializing in prostitution issues.
However, “there is still a lot of this image of the escort who accompanies the rich in the evening and who does not sleep but no, in fact!
An escort is quite simply an indoor whore, ”says Beverly Ruby, sex worker and activist at the Sex Work Union (Strass).
Even if, for the Sugarbabies, the relationship takes more time and “investment”, underlines the young woman.
Customers are looking for a "relationship [but] with money", illustrates Angela*, not just paid sex.
Former Sugarbaby, Angela, who lives in the United States, denounces “false” videos.
Some young women boast of earning thousands of dollars in exchange for simple conversations and dinners in starred restaurants – which they don't pay for, of course.
“It is of course false.
To be Sugarbaby is also to give the “sugar””, she underlines.
Understand, sex.
@_dollllbaby
Welcome #sugarbaby #sugardating #sugarbabyissues #chillwiththebigboys
♬ Ameno Amapiano Remix (You Wanna Bamba) - Goya Menor & Nektunez
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Minors seeking advice
Because the activity of the Sugarbabies also takes place on the other side of the curtain which is “really creepy”, according to Hélène Dohu.
A facet of the activity, so well hidden behind Louboutin pumps and Chanel sunglasses, that it becomes invisible to thousands of teenage girls who, in comments, ask for advice to become Sugarbabies in turn.
Today, “the prostitution of minors happens almost exclusively via the Internet”, underlines Hélène Dohu, a problem already mentioned by the Champrenault report in 2021.
When she was a Sugarbaby and a stripper, Angela regularly posted about it on social media.
“I never shared my bad experiences, I congratulated myself on having received $1,000 in one day, for example, and I didn't think I was doing anything wrong,” she explains.
Until she received messages from minors asking her for advice.
From Cinderella to “trauma”
However, TikTok reaches a particularly young audience.
According to the German statistical portal Statistica, a quarter of users are under 20 in the United States.
And it's even more impressive in France where three quarters of users are under 25, according to the company Kolsquare.
And some of the videos almost seem to speak directly to these children.
They sometimes use references to Disney princesses like here with the hashtag “CinderellaMovie”.
Going from TikTok to ad sites for Sugarbaby, where images of great restaurants give way to hundreds of raw and violent messages: “young girls who believe in these videos will be traumatized”, Angela warns.
@eyecharlene
It be like that sometimes #DenimYourWay #CinderellaMovie #sugarbaby
♬ Originalton - Yaren Topcu🥷🏽
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In addition, "the fact of broadcasting messages to encourage to become Sugarbaby, it is a form of pimping" in France, recalls Fabienne el-Khoury.
An offense punishable by seven years' imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.
A law that Beverly Ruby finds “too broad”.
According to the escort and activist, on the Internet "for a while, it's been hunting for whores".
Contacted by
20 Minutes
, the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police declares "that today, all social networks are conducive to this".
And if the spokesperson for Dare feminism Fabienne el-Khoury considers that social networks are "a zone of lawlessness", the DRPJ ensures that the Brigade for the protection of minors "is actively working to try to stop this phenomenon. growing up”.
" Deal with the situation…
For the many young girls in a situation of prostitution that sociologist Hélène Dohu and her colleagues interviewed, "it's a descent into hell": "At first, they see money - not easy, it's never easy – but fast.
Ultra-consumption is accessible and everything seems beautiful, they have a feeling of extreme freedom, but gradually the trap closes”.
Especially since the respectful and wealthy Sugardaddy is hard to find.
On the classifieds sites Angela scoured, she reports finding only "narcissistic and rude" or "stingy" men.
“They call it being Sugardaddy but all they're looking for is a cheap whore,” said the former sex worker.
Young girls always have the feeling of “managing” the situation, as illustrated by the prevention clip from the Ministry of Health.
But the routes are often more difficult and the violence frequent.
In 2020, Angela meets a potential Sugardaddy.
He is rich, young and friendly.
He likes it.
They meet but the first confinement falls.
The young man becomes possessive, asks her to become his girlfriend.
#MinorsVictimsOfProstitution |
Today in France, thousands of teenagers are victims of prostitution.
We are here to help you.
Call 119 ☎️
➡️ https://t.co/rjJqpuwLUo pic.twitter.com/PqaGCiM0A9
- Ministry of Solidarity and Health 🇫🇷 🇪🇺 (@Sante_Gouv) February 28, 2022
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Angela decides to end the relationship.
“I told him that we were stopping everything, he replied: how dare you?
You know, I have money, I have properties, I have cars, I could give you $50,000, but I didn't back down,” she says.
A real harassment ensues.
When Angela blocks one phone number, he contacts her with another.
She ends up turning to a lawyer who threatens the young man with legal action.
Finally, the phone is silent.
The beautiful showcase of social networks
Despite their misleading veneer, the posts of sex workers are important because they find a space for expression on TikTok.
"Whatever we can say, something can be held against us: we must be neither in glamorization nor in miserabilism", sighs Beverly Ruby.
However, on TikTok or Instagram, no online profile is representative of reality.
We post our faces under filter and our sushi trays and we hide our defeated looks from the aftermath of the bakery and our ham shells.
"I don't think they want to influence young girls, they just post the good side of their life, like everyone else somewhere," says Angela, who believes that for Sugarbabies, the "bad side is half the work… At least”.
* The first name has been changed
Miscellaneous facts
Prostitution of minors: The Wannonce site targeted by a complaint for "aggravated pimping"
By the Web
TikTok: A campaign wants to alert teenage girls to the danger of “nudes”
Social networks
TikTok
Society
Prostitution
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