Reflection Paper

REFLECTION PAPER:

Please write a one-two page reflection paper regarding transactional sex with college students and how that can lead to transactional trafficking.  Use the links below.

The "Sugar Culture" among college students: 

Due to the rising cost of attendance at public universities, and the lack of federal government aid to assist with this disparity, many college students have had to turn to alternative ways to pay for college. At this time federal aid covers about 20% of the cost of attendance at a public institution, making the student responsible for finding a way to pay the remaining 80% of the debt. This leaves college students participating in what is referred to as "the student loan crisis". Some say that higher education in the United States promotes a student loan debt culture.  Desperate to find alternative means to assist with financial needs and a way to generate fast and excessive income that will still accommodate their class schedules, college students have turned to more unorthodox options.  

Seekingarrangement.com, now known as seeking.com, stepped in to try and offer assistance, or at least that is how their founder is "selling" the site !!  This "dating platform" advertises that it caters to college students by upgrading their membership if the student will use their college email !! This way the student appears to be "vetted" for the sugar daddy interested in college coeds. There are other sites such as sugarbabies.com and sugardaddy.com, however, seekarrangement.com has received the most publicity to date.

For your reflection paper please answer the following: 

1. What do you think drives these particular students toward these risky options, making them vulnerable to sex trafficking? How does this turn into sex trafficking?
2. What do you feel is behind the acceptability of these platforms such as onlyfans.com, seekingarrangement.com, sugarbabies.com, and sugardaddy.com? 
3. How is seekingarrangement.com not qualified as prostitution according to the law? 
4. Although these college students sign up for these platforms on their own, do you consider this a victimless situation or crime  if/when it gets to the point of labor or sex trafficking? Why or why not?

Here are a few links to help with this assignment: 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seeking-arrangement-college-students_n_913373

https://www.dressember.org/blog/collegestudentsandtrafficking

(There are a number of resources under the above link that may be of interest).