It appears that child sex offenders have been importing life-like sex dolls that resemble 12 year old girls – and may get away with it via a legal loophole. [2] Sex dolls look a bit creepy at the best of times, but this is just plain wrong. [1] A Chinese website is under fire for selling disturbingly life-like child-size, sex dolls. The doll, which appears in screenshots to be modelled after a girl of about 9 or 10, ignited a huge firestorm over the last several days, culminating with articles in the HuffPo and the New York Daily News. [4] The disturbing advert, spotted by an advocacy group on Facebook called Dining for Dignity, shows the model of a girl, who does not look much older than 9 or 10. [1] Described as a “beautiful young girl sex doll for men,” the item costs $178 and is available to ship worldwide. [1] As if the listing itself wasn’t 1,000-times more awful than you could’ve imagined (it boasts that the doll is “highly flexible”) [4] Worryingly 57 of them have been sold so far to customers in the US, UK, Japan, Germany, and more, the advert shows. The product listing boasts that it is highly flexible, and that “all three holes can be used.” Dining for Dignity has now set up a protest page to pressure DHgate – one of China’s top global merchants platforms – into removing the item or banning the seller. It’s petition reads, ”This negligence is fueling human sex trafficking, pedophilia, violent rape, and more.” [5] According to a recent update on the petition’s page, it seems that Dhgate has been quick to comply:
Yes, we collectively made a difference! The NY Daily News covered our story today. A rep from DH Gate contacted me, removed the doll in question and took a stand against pedophilia! Thank you so much for caring and making a difference. Your voice matters.
The Huffington Post points out that DHgate had sold 57 of the dolls before the doll was removed from the site. [1] It seems that some people encountered problems with their local police after purchasing this product online. The autralian site Mamamia report that a man from Sydney man was charged with owning a doll that was allegedly in the shape of a girl “12 to 14 years of age” that had a “removable silicon genital insert”, but his solicitor says that the law can’t touch him. [2] Federal Police found the doll in the man’s bed when they raided the man’s home last year. Police say that the doll was dressed in a satin nightgown and was purchased from the Australian arm of a Chinese website for $3667. The accused man told police he played dress-ups with the doll “then put it in my bed [and used] it as a hug pillow when I sleep”. [2] The accused man plans to argue that the Crimes Act (NSW) defines child abuse material as videos, images and literature but does not include physical objects like his doll, which is 132cm tall and weighs about 30kg. His lawyer, Benjamin Goh, told the Daily Telegraph that the legal definition of “child abuse material” would need to be changed to include three dimensional inanimate objects before his client can be convicted. [6] Victims of Crime Assistance League spokesman Howard Brown said the law must be changed immediately because unless the legal definition is amended, “it won’t matter how repulsed a judge or a magistrate is” by the dolls. The Australian website that sold the dolls has been shut down and the Chinese website where they were once found has removed them from sale after concerted efforts from campaigners in the USA. [2]