As university and college semesters unfold, a small but increasing percentage of students will likely also be taking on a largely under-reported and overlooked form of part-time employment: sex work.
Over the past year, there have been multiple reports of a dramatic increase in content creators on OnlyFans — a platform that allows fans to pay creators directly for content, which has been popular with sex workers. Some new users say they created accounts to navigate financial hardship during COVID-19. OnlyFans platform reported a huge uptick in users during the pandemic: from 7.5 million users in November 2019 to 85 million in December 2020.
Read more: Rise in ‘sugar babies’ mirrors increase in student sex work
In Canada, the company Seeking, (formerly known as SeekingArrangement), which calls itself an “elite dating site,” reported in January this year on a page headed “Sugar Baby University” that over 350,000 students in Canada have “chosen to elevate their university experience by joining SeekingArrangement and dating successful benefactors who help them avoid student debt and secure a better future.” The company also said “the number of college Sugar Babies seeking Sugar Daddies on SeekingArrangement rose nearly three per cent from the previous year.” The company now discourages use of the term “sugar baby.”
“Sugar dating” or “sugaring” is an approach to dating in which one partner provides compensation (often in the form of money or gifts) to the other; the person receiving the compensation is typically referred to as a “sugar baby.”
As we enter a new academic year, higher-education institutions need to take notice and respond.
