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BY: KYLIE MCGIVERN
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Student loan debt is outpacing credit card debt in the United States.
That leaves many graduates wondering how they’ll pull themselves out of a hole - which can quickly become tens of thousands of dollars deep.
A “sugar daddy” website has become a rope for some. One such site is called SeekingArrangement.com.
Boston’s WCVB.
Reporter: “The web site’s founder admits it’s not your average dating site, but it’s not all about sex.”
SeekingArrangement.com Founder: “You don’t go on a normal dating website like Match.com or eHarmony, you don’t get profiled and expect people to say, ‘I’m in debt,’ or ‘I need help with my financial situation.’ But you find that on SeekingArrangement.com, and out of this brutal honesty people meet, they form mutually beneficial relationships.”
The company’s description says the relationships are quote- “mutually beneficial."
It sets up arrangements between an older -- wealthy -- person -- and a younger person, who receives compensation in the form of gifts or financial assistance quote- “in return for friendship, or intimacy.”
The site claims -- of its 800,000 members, 700,000 are so-called “sugar babies.
The founder says he’s seen a 350 percent jump in college “sugar babies” over the past four years -- and the numbers are growing. A writer for Eden Fantasys’ Sexis can see why.
“In an economy where it’s tough to get any sort of work, let alone find a job that will allow one to pay off massive loans, it’s no big surprise that a website that makes it easier for young, college women to ‘date’ rich, older men would take off.”
But are these so-called “mutually beneficial relationships” just that - or something more?
MSNBC has more...
Reporter: “‘Jennifer’ said says she currently has two active sugar daddies, and claims she can make upwards of $5,000 in one weekend. Even though she says she is having sex with these men, she does not consider herself a prostitute.”
Psychologist: “I think it’s a combination of desperation and a change in our moral fiber, where girls are able to say to themselves, ‘This is okay,’ when it’s really not okay.”
Some wonder -- are websites like this even legal? The Huffington Post quotes a Las Vegas attorney, who compares the relationships to some marriages.
"One could even consider certain marriages where there are unequal financial resources to not be overly dissimilar...But any relationship that is an ongoing one that's not purely about sex but may have a sexual aspect to it, you can't really classify as prostitution.”
The Week quotes a Death and Taxes writer -- who isn’t buying it.
“Right, and a Las Vegas lawyer is ‘obviously the most qualified judge of morality,’... These sites are ‘getting away with blatant prostitution,’ period.”
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