With the increase in popularity of sugar relationships, many people are jumping into the dynamic with promises of income, gifts, and having every monetary wish fulfilled, without understanding what a healthy relationship looks like.
Unfortunately, the lack of understanding can prove problematic to everyone involved.
As a sugar baby, you’re leaving yourself open to predatory behaviors, lack of financial security, and safety concerns.
As a sugar daddy, you can leave yourself financially vulnerable when spending income without knowing the intricacies of healthy relationships.
Before jumping into a random dynamic, let’s look at the overall safety and security of sugar daddy dating and how to stay safe when pursuing a new relationship.
Always Establish Your Online Identity
Whenever you’re joining an online community, protecting your identity needs to be a top priority.
That means coming up with an altered identity when you’re on the websites and apps to save your actual identity.
It’s not to say that sugar daddy dating is inherently unsafe; it simply means setting up a few boundaries between you and men on the internet.
Consider using a nickname, pet name, or otherwise unattached name that you’d like to go by online and continue the name into the relationship.
You want to create distance between the sugar daddy industry and your reality.
Keep Photos Separate Online
While you’ll likely need photos to attract sugar daddies, you’ll want to be careful about what pictures you’re posting.
Ensure that any photographs attached to your accounts are not published anywhere else online (especially social media).
Many men will take the images you’ve posted and run them through a reverse image search.
These results will show if the pictures are found anywhere else online, which can help avoid scam artists.
Scam artists will often pull photos from stock photo websites to pass off as their own.
If your photos have been shared on other social media platforms, you’ll risk the results showing your true identity and personal information attached to them.
Be Ready to Throw Away with Disposable Accounts
Once you’ve started chatting with a few gentlemen, it’s common to go off the platform.
Often, this includes sharing phone numbers or email addresses.
It’s always best to have a throw-away email account (in other words, not the primary email address you use), as well as a remote phone number.
These phone numbers can be purchased cheaply through many providers and mask your number with an online alternative.
Always Tell Someone Where You’ll Be
There’s always a risk of meeting someone online, regardless of how long you’ve been chatting.
Before agreeing to meet with a potential sugar daddy, take down important details of your whereabouts and share them with a close friend.
Try to get the name, address, and location of the place, including the make and model of your date’s vehicle.
Always meet someone in a public location for the first interaction.
If you eventually meet in discreet places like his home or a hotel, send those details along with your expected return time frame.
Arrange to give a friend a call throughout the evening to check in and see how things are going.
You can let the potential date know that you’ll be contacting someone throughout the evening due to safety concerns.
If someone has a problem with this arrangement, walk away completely.
Your safety needs to be a top concern when it comes to any relationship.
Set Your Boundaries and Stick to Them
The one significant difference between traditional relationships and a sugar dynamic is the influence of financial control.
Many women can feel coerced or pushed into activities they’re uncomfortable with under the promise of financial gain.
It’s always a good idea to have a few boundaries in mind when entering a sugar relationship and feel comfortable walking away if they’re not being respected.
Although the financial freedom that comes with having a sugar daddy is nice, it’s not worth giving up your morals or boundaries for cash.
Always have an alternative income in place (multiple relationships or a part-time job) throughout your relationships, and never rely on someone as the sole income to your lifestyle.
By placing so much dependence on one person, you’ll be more inclined to protect the relationship (and the payment), increasing the chance of stepping outside your comfort level.
Is Sugar Dating Safe?
Overall, taking the proper safety precautions needs to happen when meeting anyone from the internet.
This includes friends, estranged family, or new relationships.
Sugar dating isn’t any more or less dangerous than the risks attached to virtual dating, but users should always be attentive to their interactions.
If something feels off throughout the meet, it’s better to leave the environment than become a statistic.
As you continue to pursue relationships with sugar daddies, check in with yourself mentally from time to time.
Assess how you’re feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Establish where you’re at now, compared to how you were feeling a few months ago.
As long as you’re still comfortable, happy, and fulfilled, it’s a positive thing.
If at any point in time your self-esteem drops, you’re facing anxiety, or you aren’t feeling physically safe, reach out to a trusted friend or companion for support.
It’s not to say you need to leave the industry entirely; instead, ending a current relationship or finding a new partner may be considered.
