A Website by any Other Name: Sex, Sugar, and Section 230
![handle is hein.journals/worts34 and id is 267 raw text is: A WEBSITE BY ANY OTHER NAME? SEX,
SUGAR, AND SECTION 230
By Laura E. Deeks *
I. INTRODUCTION
The Internet has had profound effects on communication and business
worldwide, and the sex industry is no exception.' Just as internet services
have evolved since the advent of the World Wide Web and its massive
expansion, so too have the ways in which sex workers use the Internet to
advertise their services.2 The nature of online sex work has evolved as
well. One of the more recent developments is the prevalence of so-called
sugar dating sites (hereinafter SDS) wherein older men with cash to spare
(referred to as sugar daddies) link up with younger, cash-strapped women
who are not averse to spending some quality time for a price (referred to as
sugar babies).3 Sugar relationships may be comprised of older women
(sugar mommies) and younger men, or of homosexuals,, though the
older-male younger-female prototype remains most common.4 Sugar
* Laura E. Deeks holds a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law - Newark ('13) and a B.A. in English
literature and political science from Rutgers University - New Brunswick ('07). She thanks her friends
and family for all their love and support.
' See Robert Rigg, The Not-So-Risky Business of High-End Escorts and the Internet in the 21'
Century, 17 RICH. J.L. & TECH. 3, 2 (2010) [hereinafter Risky Business].
2 See id at IN 42-43; see also Jeff McDonald, The Oldest Profession Finds a New Medium:
Craigslist and the Sex Industry, 15 PUB. INT. L. REP. 42, 42 (2009) (noting the internet offers low-cost,
wide-ranging and highly anonymous means of advertising prostitution).
3 See, e.g., Amanda M. Fairbanks, Seeking Arrangement: College Students Using Sugar Daddies'
to Pay Off Loan Debt, HUFFINGTON POST (Apr. 30, 2012, 1:01 PM)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/seeking-arrangement-college-
students_n_913373.html?page=-1 (last updated Apr. 30, 2012, 1:01 PM) (describing the increase in
college students exchanging sex for money in order to pay off tuition and student loan debt). For ease of
reference, I will occasionally refer to the engagement in sugar relationships as sugaring and to the
participants in general (both sugar babies and daddies or mommies) as sugars.
4 Id.; see also Amanda M. Fairbanks, Sex For Tuition: Gay Male College Students Using 'Sugar
Daddies' To Pay Off Loan Debt, HUFFINGTON POST (Aug, 30, 2011, 6:12 AM),
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/30/gay-sugar-daddies-sugar-babies-sex-tuition-college-
students_n_938155.html (last updated Oct. 30, 2011, 6:12 AM) [hereinafter Sex for Tuition]
(investigating homosexual sugar relationships).
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A Website by any Other Name: Sex, Sugar, and Section 230
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