SgInstaBabes founder Lai Wee Kiat sparked outrage after offering paid access to teenage girls in the collective through a membership programme costing up to S$5,000 a month, promising yacht parties and revealing photos. The former bodybuilder launched the programme on Patreon in August 2018, with tiers offering subscribers photos of the girls in bikinis and other revealing outfits and invitations to join them at private yacht parties.
The backlash was led by veteran blogger Xiaxue, who posted screenshots on her Instagram Stories alleging that Lai had exchanged inappropriate messages with a 15-year-old girl. In the screenshots, a man could be seen cajoling the teenager to send him bikini photos, describing her as crazy hot, and trying to ask her out on a date. The girl later came forward herself, sharing further screenshots in which he asked what she was willing to do with her photos and online presence, whether she would chat with random men, and whether she would accept an overnight stay with a man as part of a job, likening it to staying at home watching a movie. She alleged his plan since 2016 had been to offer people exposure to his set of underage girls for a fee.
Critics said the scheme was akin to a social escort service and warned it exposed the girls to sexual exploitation, questioning the ages of those involved and whether the programme put them at risk. Lai insisted there was nothing sleazy about it and nothing beyond partying and fun, saying events would be held in groups. But the pressure proved overwhelming: SgInstaBabes' Instagram and Patreon pages were taken down shortly after the backlash, and Lai announced he was taking a break from social media, saying that if the page ever went live again, he would no longer be in charge.
The collective later said any revival would involve a major revamp, with stricter and higher age limits, 16 and above for shoots and 18 and above for parties, and that family-friendly content would migrate to a new page called Join the Circle SG, described as safe for all ages, while the SgInstaBabes name would focus on adult-oriented content. The episode became a defining scandal of Singapore's influencer era, demonstrating how quickly a business built on young women's images could collapse when the public decided the line between content creation and exploitation had been crossed.
The exposé drew in other online personalities as well, including YouTuber Dee Kosh, who amplified the claims before his own later fall from grace over sexual offences. The saga also became entangled with Xiaxue's own controversies: she later privatised her blog and Twitter account and filed a harassment suit against what she called a mob, after being called out for past comments about migrant workers and the transgender community, and online video network Clicknetwork TV dropped her as a host. That the SgInstaBabes furore could not be separated from the wider wars of Singapore's influencer scene only underlined how deeply the episode was embedded in the era's online culture.