“Sugar dating” means an online dating practice in which a person, called a sugar baby, receives money, gifts, support or other benefits from a partner, called a sugar daddy or sugar mommy, in exchange for an intimate date or relationship.
This is not really a new phenomenon, however, this form of online dating has seen an increase in recent years. The digital revolution of the sugar dating trend began in 2006, thanks to an entrepreneur, who decided to give life and space to a website that went viral in a very short time: the subscribers have multiplied dramatically over the years, also involving many minors.
Sugar Baby Phenomenon: Many Minors also Involved
Sugar babies are therefore young people, especially girls, who entertain relationships and appointments with people who are generally older than themselves, in exchange for gifts, jewels, clothes or travel or money for expenses that they are unable to bear.
Over time, there has been no shortage of sites and apps on the net that encourage this practice, which now seems to be widespread also in Italy. Nowadays, specific social networks also seem to be widespread in which the goal is not to reach a high number of followers but of supporters, that is, people willing to pay to view certain multimedia content, often of an intimate and private nature. The possibility of being able to bypass the registration filters also means that minors are also frequently involved.
Also read how to find a real legitimate sugar daddy on sugardaddyseek.
What are the Risks for Children?
Adolescence is certainly the age in which one is most likely to expose oneself to the dangers of the internet. Many kids move their lives directly to the web, where they often hide, creating fake profiles, in order to act freely, away from the eyes of their parents.
To gain recognition, popularity, gifts, and easy income, they sometimes reach out to older people online, meet them, and even share intimate or sexual content online.
Girls are the category most at risk and are often also victims of extortion, in the sense that they are threatened to make public what they do, in order to obtain more and more favors of a sexual nature, or they are victims of pornographic revenge, which involves a ‘ deep invasion into one’s private life.
How to Protect Minors Online?
Parents are often unaware of these behaviors, they think they cannot involve their children, they do not know the technological tools used by children and underestimate the extent of the phenomenon.
We need to reflect on why these young people sell out so easily without giving value to their person and without respecting themselves and their bodies, completely annihilating the concept of intimacy, modesty and the boundary between public and private, living sexuality without feelings, exploited and not shared.
It becomes essential, in addition to accompanying them from an early age to a conscious use of the network, to educate children and young people to respect themselves and their bodies that too often are now exposed, without the awareness of the dangers and that certain experiences can hurt their dignity, leaving indelible marks in the psyche.
Talking about sexuality with children is not easy and very often it becomes an embarrassing topic that one cannot deal with. The parent, however, plays a fundamental role in transmitting that self-confidence and that frame of values that can guide them in their choices, even in a phase, such as adolescence, in which they would like to go it alone and be independent.
