More Sydney uni students opt for sugar baby life

Two of Sydney’s top universities have been named among the nation’s fastest ‘sugar baby schools’ with students actively seeking out ‘sugar daddy’ relationships to help fund their studies.

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Students at Sydney’s top universities are embracing “sugar dating” as a means to make ends meet, with University of Sydney students the fastest growing group to sign up.

That’s according to SeekingArrangement, the world’s largest Sugar Daddy dating site, which released its annual report of the Fastest Growing Sugar Babies Schools this month.

According to the report, 177,000 Australian university students are now registered on their site seeking ‘sugar dating’ arrangements.

University of Sydney had the highest number registered (660) and the third highest sign-up rate (170 in 2018), while University of New South Wales had 280 students registered and the sixth highest sign up rate of 177 in 2018.

The site, which makes no secret about the fact students make up a significant part of their user base, has been accused of targeting students on its website, by offering “relief” to those struggling to pay rent, or contend with large uni debts or HECS payments.

SeekingArrangement claims to have 10 million sugar babies, mummies and daddies on its websites around the globe. Pictured right, founder and CEO Brandon Wade. *The women pictured are publicity material from the US site and are not Australian students.

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Kimberly De La Cruz of SeekingArrangement said the site offered university students free Premium Membership and they had seen continuous growth in sign ups among Sydney students since user data had been collected in 2006.

Sugar Daddies and Mummies pay $79.99 a month and Ms De La Cruz said all profiles went through an intense verification process.

“Users are not allowed to engage with other users until they have passed this verification process,” she said.

The website says it’s a place where members can form mutually-beneficial relationships and sugar babies are not sex workers. Sex workers are not allowed on the site.

But former Sydney sugar baby *Violet said sex was often part of the agreement.

“I was at uni and a friend of mine in one of my lectures was telling me she’d started doing the sugar baby thing, and I was super intrigued,” said Violet, who was 18 when she signed up.

“I joined SeekingArrangement, made an account, started talking to people and essentially started meeting up with people, trading money for sex or just company.

“The funniest thing is, a lot of people on the site were like, ‘I’m not looking for an escort, I’m not looking for prostitution’ when they basically were.”

She said most men who went on the site offered a weekly allowance, and while many women made it work and were content, she struggled with the power dynamic.

“There’s an overwhelming number of people on that site who are like, ‘I’m a mentor, you will learn a lot from me, I can offer you valuable insights into life,” she said. “So that was one of the main reasons I got off the site, it was a bit mess of people who should be on Tinder.”

SeekingArrangement is a website that lets its users connect for dating and beneficial relationships. The sugar daddy usually provides monetary support to the sugar baby. In return, the sugar baby provides the sugar daddy with companionship and dating experience.

The site only allows paid-up members to contact sugar babies directly and arrange meet ups, but Violet said in hindsight, she was often in vulnerable positions meeting men late at night in unfamiliar locations, and counts herself lucky nothing bad ever happened.

She opted to do part time sex work in a brothel instead as it was safer and paid better.

According to SeekingArrangement, Australian sugar babies can earn around $3000 a month, and in its marketing material it says: “Sugar Babies enjoy a life of luxury by being pampered with fine dinners, exotic trips and allowances. In turn, Sugar Daddies or Mummies find beautiful members to accompany them at all times”.

There’s no specific mention of sex as a transaction, although on Sugar Lifestyle Forums on reddit, where sugar babies and daddies discuss the lifestyle, sex for payment is common.

Last year, the site made headlines after a high school student allegedly received money for sex after hooking up with a 35-year-old man through the SeekingArrangements app.

A spokesman for the University of Sydney spokesman said the safety and wellbeing of students was their first priority.

“We caution all our students against providing their details to a website or service if they’re not completely sure what they’re signing up for,” the spokesperon said.

“We know Sydney can be an expensive place to live and urge any students facing financial hardship to seek support from our financial support service if required, or our student support services if they find themselves in an uncomfortable situation.”