INSTEAD of banning dating sites like Sugarbook, the government should tackle the root cause of sugar dating, which is wealth disparity, said university students who use the platform.

The students, known as “sugar babies”, told The Malaysian Insight that the government should look into the root cause why students are subscribing to the app instead of banning it.

A sugar baby is a young female or male who is financially pampered and cared for by a sugar daddy or sugar mama in exchange for companionship, which may or not include sexual intercourse.

“Mia” said it is easier to blame the students for taking the “immoral path” than fixing the systematic gap that exists among students.

“Mia” cited the report of a single mother, who was involved in prostitution in order to feed her child and for which she was arrested.

“The ‘crime’ she committed was a result of the failure of the state to care for her children. I can think of the similarities in this situation and sugar dating.”

Banning sugar-dating sites would also compromise the safety of sugar babies, she said.

A ban does not entirely exclude students from sugar dating, it will just make it less safe.

“They would be forced to use other alternatives which put their safety at risk,” Mia said.

“The closest analogy I could think of is abortion. Criminalising abortion does not prevent women from getting them, it just means women were still getting them, but at unlicensed, unsupervised sites, where the death rate is high.

“No one is doing it for the fun of it.”

Sugarbook is a website and mobile app platform established on the concept of “sugar dating”. The term is loosely used to describe relationships in which financial support is exchanged for romantic companionship.

Last week, Sugarbook, revealed a 40% spike in sign-ups among university students struggling to pay tuition fees, household and living expenses.

Police initiated investigations into the website after it named 10 public and private universities as having the highest number of students who chose to become “sugar babies” and sought “sugar daddies” to finance their lifestyles.

On Tuesday, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blocked the platform after a meeting with Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad.

Mia’s security concerns are shared by another sugar baby, Kimberly, who deactivated her Sugarbook after she heard about the ban.

Kimberly said Sugarbook and other sugar dating sites serve as a sense of security for sugar babies as their identity is kept private, on the other hand, those who wish to sign up for the site must upload their identity card for security purposes.

While Sugarbook’s ban is not much of a loss, as there are many other ways to find sugar daddies in Malaysia, Kimberly said sugar babies risk having their identities compromised and would be more exposed to conmen without sites like Sugarbook.

“By banning sites like these, the government is only making the situation worse.

“With the existence of such sites, our identities are protected. Most of us go by pseudonyms and our real names are not revealed.

“The sugar daddies using sites as such would have been verified and only women above 18 years old are allowed to use these sites via strict ID card checks.

“Banning Sugarbook would give way for our personal identity to be leaked and some of us might be catfished, especially if we start using WhatsApp and Tinder etc to find sugar daddies,” she said.

The founder of Sugarbook was arrested by police on Thursday but a Shah Alam court rejected a remand application to detain him any further while police probed into the site.

However, police managed to secure a seven-day remand the next day, following a review application by Selangor’s prosecution office. – February 21, 2021.