Guy's Behavior

He called me pretty and then called me as 'babe', so what does he mean?

I met him online on a beta reading/writing site and he wanted to be my friend. I accepted it and he began chatting with me. He asked about my hobbies and my profession. He's from my neighboring country and he asked for my Facebook ID but I gave him an excuse and then he asked for my email ID. I gave him one of my spare and mostly unused ones that I'll most likely shut down if necessary. Then he began calling me very pretty and that my smile can melt anyone's heart. Then he started calling me from 'dear' to 'sweetie' to 'honey' to 'darling' to 'baby' to finally as 'babe'. When I asked him if he called his other friends that way but he said that I was the exception because I'm a very sweet and pretty and beautiful girl. Is it normal for a guy to do to a girl he only wants to be friends with? We're both from South Asia and I just wanna know if he's flirting with me and if he is interested in me romantically. He also asked me if I have any boyfriends or even male friends and requested me not to show our chat to my family (since my excuse to not give him my Facebook ID was that my parents are there too and they monitor my every move because they're super conservative). He keeps begging me to keep talking to him daily because he really wants to. I'm confused.
He called me pretty and then called me as 'babe', so what does he mean?
Post Opinion