SINGAPORE: A 23-year-old woman was sentenced to 11 months’ jail on Monday (Sep 15) for cheating a man she met through the controversial sugar dating platform, Sugarbook.
Chang Wai Chain had agreed to meet him for sex in exchange for S$400 (US$312), but did not go through with it and took S$8,100 from him after pretending to be underage.
Earlier this month, another woman admitted to making a false rape report after a dispute with a man she met on the platform. Claris Ling Min Rui, now 20, asked the 43-year-old man to pay her S$1,200, but he refused and offered only S$500. In retaliation, she called the police and lied that she had been raped.
The cases have once again cast a spotlight on Sugarbook, which describes itself as a platform that facilitates “mutually beneficial” arrangements between sugar daddies and sugar babies.
What is sugar dating and is it legal?
Sugar dating typically involves a younger person offering companionship – with or without intimacy – in exchange for financial support from an older, more well-off individual.
According to Sugarbook’s website, such arrangements are between consenting adults, and may include “companionship, mentorship, financial and emotional support”.
Lawyers told CNA that these arrangements are not specifically governed by law but are generally legal.
“There are basically no rules about it, because at the end of the day, it’s a private, contractual arrangement between two consenting and willing adults,” said lawyer Chooi Jing Yen.
In the eyes of the law, two private individuals can agree to “anything they want”, unless it is expressly prohibited by law, he added.
“You can have arrangements where you pay somebody for sex. So sugaring arrangements, paying them for their time or to go on dates with you and all that – not illegal.”
When do such arrangements become illegal?
Lawyers emphasised that issues arise when minors, fraud or extortion are involved.
Several men have been jailed after paying underage girls they met on Sugarbook for sex.
In February, 42-year-old Mario Antonio Di Dier was sentenced to one-and-a-half years’ jail for paying a 16-year-old sugar baby for sex. In January last year, Benjamin Huang Junlong, 39, was jailed for sexual penetration of a 15-year-old girl and filming the act without her consent.
The legal age of consent in Singapore is 16, but it is an offence to have commercial sex with anyone under 18.
Offenders may also face grooming or exploitation charges if there is a significant age gap, if the offender is in a position of authority, or if there is inducement such as payment or material rewards, said managing partner of Lighthouse Law Adrian Wee.
Basically, when minors are involved, the crimes have “nothing to do” with sugar dating, and the arrangements are illegal regardless of the nature of the relationship between the two parties, he said.
For example, sex with a person under 14 is rape. Sex with someone under 16 would be considered sexual penetration of a minor, which is an offence under the Women’s Charter.
Mr Chooi added that not knowing the other party’s true age is also not a defence, unless the person had no reason to disbelieve a false claim.
“If you fall short of actually checking, then that’s not a defence,” he said.
In Huang’s case, the 15-year-old girl’s Sugarbook profile had said she was 19 years old, and he did not verify her age, the court heard.
