PITTSBURGH — More than 200 women from local colleges have signed up for an online date site called Seeking Arrangement, according to Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE.
The website, which touts itself as the world’s largest “Sugar Daddy” dating site, encourages wealthy men to connect with attractive, young women.
“College Sugar Babies receive an average $3,000 per month allowances and gifts from Sugar Daddies,” the website boasts. “Don't waste precious study hours at a minimum wage job.”
Forty-two percent of the website's 3.5 million members worldwide are university students, the company reports. The average user is 27.
The website calls itself an online dating service “Where beautiful, successful people fuel mutually beneficial relationships.”
"It's just a great opportunity for girls who are considering forgoing college because they don't want to be in debt," website spokeswoman Brook Kuric told TribLIVE.
TribLIVE reports the Las Vegas-based company and ones like it have drawn fierce criticism from those who liken the type of "arrangements" being promoted to prostitution.
"Prostitution is illegal, obviously, and we take a lot of measures to get those people off of our site and prevent them from joining," Kuric told TribLIVE. "These girls are not escorts."
According to TribLIVE, Kent State, Penn State and Temple University made SeekingArrangement.com's list of the top 20 fastest-growing Sugar Baby schools, each with 160 to nearly 400 new student sign-ups in 2014.
TribLIVE reports the website's registered university email addresses show the University of Pittsburgh had 164 newly registered members, Carnegie Mellon had 23, California University of Pennsylvania had 12, and Duquesne University had seven.
Channel 11 News covered a story in July 2013 when a similar company's billboard went up on Route 88 in Overbrook. CLICK HERE to read that story.
Natasha Lindstrom, a Trib Total Media staff writer, contributed to this report.