Local

Website connects over 100 Jacksonville-area college students with ‘sugar daddies'

More than 100 local college students are taking advantage of a website that connects them with wealthy “sugar daddies.”

According to Seeking an Arrangement, the website’s average “sugar baby” gets more than $2,440 a month in gifts.

“I think that when people hear the terms ‘sugar daddy,’ ‘sugar baby,’ etc., you know, that doesn’t necessarily sound good at all on first impression. But the reality is that it’s not what a lot of people think it is,” said Florida State College at Jacksonville student Christie, who has had a profile on Seeking an Arrangement on and off since 2012.

Christie, who has asked Action News Jax not to use her last name, is one of three students at FSCJ who have profiles on the website. At Flagler College, there are 44. At University of North Florida, 69 students have created “sugar baby” profiles.

“[The men are] typically either retired or successful, and they either own a business or they make a decent amount of money,” said Christie.

The idea is that attractive young women go out on dates with older wealthy men in exchange for money, expensive gifts and exotic trips.

Christie said those relationships are not necessarily sexual.

“I’ve had people inquire about things like that and, like I said, it’s not something that I’m interested in,” she said. “It’s definitely not an escort service or something along those lines, which I think some people think it is. It’s not that. It’s whatever you make it.”

Christie works full-time at a salon while going to school and she said, while a date has given her money in the past, she uses it more like a traditional dating website to meet successful men.