A father of a 7-year-old recently got sentenced to 2 years of jail for having sex with a sugar baby in Singapore. What is worrying though, is that this sugar baby was just 15 at the time!
Sex with underage sugar baby in Singapore
According to Yahoo News Singapore, 45-year-old Adrian Tan Lee Guan had met the 15-year-old sugar baby in Singapore in November 2016 through the website, ‘Seeking Arrangement’.
They exchanged contact details, and as per their agreement, Tan was to pay her S$1,600 as allowance. He was working then as a business development director and earned a monthly salary of over S$10,000.
In return, the sugar baby in Singapore promised him companionship and sex. Tan was aware of her age.
The couple ended up having sex 5 times within 3 days.
The sexual acts took place in a hotel pool, a multi-storey car park and inside his car over a period of 3 days, and involved both oral and penetrative sex.
The case came to light when the girl informed her school. A police report was lodged.
Tan's wife has since then filed for divorce; he has also lost his job, and now works as an Uber driver.
Sex with sugar baby in Singapore: Singapore dad sentenced to jail
Tan has been sentenced to jail for 24 months. His lawyer claims that he had committed the offence owing to depression over rising credit card debts.
Meanwhile, it is truly worrying to see that a sugar baby in Singapore was as young as 15 on sugar dating sites.
A spokesman for Seeking Arrangement has clarified in an email to Yahoo News Singapore that the company is “not in the business of connecting people with children”.
“If a member is reported for being underage, they are immediately suspended pending proof of date of birth. If a member can not furnish the proper, legal documentation, (usually a government-issued picture ID), they are banned from the site.”
Apparently, the company had set up an Underage Task Force in April 2017 to train its staff to identify potentially underage profiles, and to take real-time action against members who were found to be underage.
However, he says that, in spite of these safeguards, some profiles were "bound to slip through the cracks” due to the huge membership base.
Underage sugar baby in Singapore: Concerns over sugar dating sites
Recently sugar dating sites received a lot of flak in Singapore Parliament, especially after some controversial ads surfaced.
Malaysia-based dating site, TheSugarBook recently launched a campaign to attract university students to register as sugar babies. For those who didn't know, sugar babies are women who get into relationships with older men (sugar daddies) for gifts or money.
The tagline for their ‘Student Program’ segment is “Discover the modern way to avoid student loan debt." The website also claims that it draws over 20,000 users in Singapore!
Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee had recently expressed his concerns over such websites, on Facebook.
He wrote, "Such platforms commoditise and devalue relationships under the cover of a 'mutually beneficial arrangement'. Relationships become transactional: an exchange of money and gifts in return for companionship and "other" services."
"But what is of greater concern is that the site targets young people who are in their late teens and early 20s, even while they are still students at polytechnics and universities, exposing them to the risk of being exploited and abused."
He also advises, "The solution lies in increasing the awareness of young people to such dangers, so that they can exercise discretion and good judgment when navigating the online world."
"Parents also play a critical role in guiding their children and helping them to stay away from undesirable online content."
Also READ: Singapore boys sexually preyed on by man through Facebook
(Source: Shin Min Daily News, Yahoo News Singapore)