"Sugar Daddies" in Malaysia: Police Arrest Owner of "Sugar Book" Site
Traveling advertisement for the Belgian site RichMeetBeautiful in Paris proposing, like the Malaysian site Sugar Book, to students to meet Sugar Daddies, rich men offering financing for sex.
France has opened an investigation for procuring.
AFP - ANAIS CAQUANT
Text by: Gabrielle Maréchaux Follow
3 min
An ongoing legal case exposes an unexpected consequence of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis it has engendered in Malaysia: the police have just arrested the creator of "Sugar Book", a dating application linking " Sugar Daddies ”and“ Sugar Babies, rich men who financially support much younger women in exchange for sex.
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From our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur,
"Daddy cake".
To understand what a
Sugar Daddy is looking for
when he joins an application like SugarBook, we can first quote the application's slogan: "
When romance meets finance
".
On its website, we can then read that SugarBook is "
a luxury dating app where members connect, meet and develop mutually beneficial relationships
".
The “benefits”, as you will no doubt have understood, are on the one hand the purses of more or less young men and on the other, the beauty or the youth of young women who are often students.
Because when you register on the website with your student email address, you don't need to pay.
An internal study published last week also ensures that studying is the most represented occupation among
Malaysian
Sugar Babies
.
Incitement to prostitution
Why was the founder arrested this week?
Among the charges, "
statements leading to public mischief
" and "
solicitation for purposes of prostitution
".
This is not the first time that such a site has been accused of such misdeeds.
In Belgium, ongoing legal cases accuse the
Rich Meet Beautiful
site
of
“
inciting prostitution
”.
In France, an investigation was opened for aggravated pimping about the same site.
All over the world, this kind of website seems to fall into legal limbo.
The platforms ensure that they do nothing but connect and remind that they do not explicitly at any time encourage its members to have sex.
Early marriages
In Malaysia, since the publication of the studies carried out by the sites of Sugar Daddy, the subject could not be more controversial.
Some are alarmed by the growing student insecurity, partly responsible for the success of the application since the pandemic.
They recall that the tuition fees of Sunway University, the one with the most
Sugar Babies
on its campus, amount to 12,200 euros and that they have not fallen since the arrival of Covid-19.
Others, like R. Nadeswaran, a columnist for the independent
Malaysiakini
media outlet
,
lamented the hypocrisy of some politicians who very quickly condemned the immorality of female students on the basis of unscientific studies, and who are alarmed at relationships which, until proven guilty, take place between two consenting adults.
But these same politicians remain silent and passive about the phenomenon of early marriage in Malaysia.
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