Life is short in Singapore for dating website Ashley Madison

THE Canada-based dating website Ashley Madison has been banned in Singapore a few days before it was due to be launched there.

THE Canada-based dating website Ashley Madison - whose slogan is "Life is short, have an affair" - has been banned in Singapore a few days before it was due to be launched there.

Since prostitution is legal in Singapore, this has led to criticism that the outlawing of the site underlines the corporate nature of the state - that adulterous relations are acceptable only if they are also commercially transacted.

The Media Development Authority, which polices the internet in Singapore, said in announcing the ban that Ashley Madison "aggressively promotes and facilitates extramarital affairs".

"It is against the public interest to allow (the company) to promote its website in flagrant disregard of our family values and public morality," it said.

Internet service providers in Singapore have been asked to block access to the site, which operates in Australia and Europe as well as North America.

This year, Ashley Madison began to marketing itself in Asia, including in Japan, India and Hong Kong.

Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun-sing said: "I'm against any company or website that harms marriage. Promoting infidelity undermines trust and commitment between a husband and wife, which are core to marriage."

Ashley Madison's owner and chief executive, former lawyer and sports agent Noel Biderman - married with two children and who, he says, does not cheat on his wife - claimed his platform merely "cannibalises an already existing behaviour pattern".

He cited a survey that claimed Singaporean women were - after Ghanaians, Thais, Malaysians and Russians - the fifth most adulterous in the world.