Danish lawmakers are calling for a crackdown on grooming, sugar dating, and other sex related offences.
The crackdown follows a survey carried out by the Danish Centre for Social Science Research (VIVE), which found that young people are far more tolerant and accepting of the idea of sugar dating.
50% of the 18-30 year olds said that sugar dating is perfectly acceptable. However, a lot fewer would actually consider taking part in it. Only 7% admitted to considering exchanging intimacy or sex for gifts.
Comparatively, 54% of the respondents consider sugar dating to being some form of prostitution, a belief that most of the major platforms are desperate to stamp out.
Margrethe Dahl, chief analyst at VIVE, said: “For many people, however, it is a bit coincidental – one-off events, not necessarily about the young people deliberately wanting to use their body to achieve something material.”
The country’s lawmakers claim that sugar dating should be considered the same as grooming, and have called for an independent clause to crack down on this.
In Denmark, it is illegal to procure sex from people under 18, as well as help young people under 18 sell sex. Thus, certain cases of sugar dating may be illegal if it implies a form of customer agreement, in which sex is exchanged for material goods, expensive gifts, or money.
According to the dating site SugarDaters.dk, which has about 10,000 active users every month, it has nothing to do with prostitution. It stressed that it doesn’t encourage sex for money in any way.
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