Pro child sexual abuse merch on Etsy

[crispinglovershighkick]

On Saturday at the Filia feminist conference the amazing Caitlin Roper spoke about her new book Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating: the Case for Resistance. In her fascinating (and upsetting) talk she said that:
1)Anyone can buy sex dolls made to look like children (illegal in some countries as a form of child abuse material) on Etsy.
2)These dolls do not prevent sexual abuse of children.
3)Etsy have not responded to Collective Shout about their campaign "to remove all child s*x abuse dolls + other pro child sexual abuse merch from sale on Etsy - and stop these products and their sellers from returning."

Caitlin wrote about her research at Reduxx (this article is concise but detailed and upsetting): reduxx.info/child-sex-abuse-dolls-are-being-made-from-photographs-of-real-children/

More (upsetting) details about the book here: www.news.com.au/national/crime/author-reveals-shocking-child-sex-abuse-doll-trade-secrets/news-story/ee562e5ac2e4364a1f1c4a2006f60230. There are more details on the CS website about this and other campaigns.

Wow. There are some things you ought to know but you really wish you didn’t.

Horrific.

I will be boycotting Etsy until they respond appropriately.

Thanks for the information

My god. This chilled me. Good to know though as I wont use Etsy now.

Yeah I feel you. The book is nothing short of heroic and I'm thinking about buying it but not sure if I can read it.

Can we make our MPs, and local governments aware of this?! Surely some legislation needs to exist around this!

Shocked this only has 4 (now 5) responses.

Whether you're boycotting or not, if you object can you please use the SM links on the petition page to tag their tech head C Andrew Ballard? I'm posting the petition page in Petitions and Activism so have a look.

And here's the Board of Directors: investors.etsy.com/governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx

Ah crap, they've hidden the thread on petitions. I guess that's not a bad thing, it must have tripped some anti-perv action?

Nm, it's there now: Etsy: stop selling incest and child abuse themed merch.

I will also boycott Etsy until they commit to removing this material. I can't believe this is something that has to be lobbied for, much less something that is ignored once flagged on a website like Etsy. Horrifying.

It's already illegal to buy them. I put 'sentence for importing child sex dolls' into a search engine.
www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news/19084338.cheshire-man-58-bought-8-child-like-sex-dolls-jailed/
www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/16893068.paedophiles-plea-give-back-sex-doll/
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/17767799.suspended-sentence-man-bought-child-like-sex-doll/

Thank goodness for women like Caitlin Roper bringing this to people's attention. I honestly have no words. Who manufacturers these? It's appalling.

Yes, she's done the hard work for all of us.

Just to be clear, Etsy is only one of many sites where these dolls are sold (she mentioned eBay and Amazon as well) but from what I remember Etsy distinguished themselves by completely ignoring it when it was brought to their attention.

A secondary point of outrage is how many girls and women have fuelled Etsy's success, as both sellers and buyers. And they can't pretend they don't know, they were told almost two years ago: www.collectiveshout.org/etsy_ignores_calls_to_remove_child_abuse_merch

Some sellers are closing their Etsy shops in response: www.collectiveshout.org/etsy_sellers_take_a_stand

If I seriously thought these dolls would be used by paedophiles instead of attacking live victims, I would be actively funding them.
But in almost every form of abuse by men, the natural trend is one of escalation to more serious offences - the vile buyers of these things would inevitably use them to “normalise” their behaviour, and increase their desires, until grooming and attacking a child became their inevitable next step.
The police need to get involved - or vigilantes will.

Shocking. Really shocking. The behaviour of people buying them and the complete ignoring of it from Etsy, and other retailers.

Yeah she had a lot to say about that in her talk and it comes up over and over on twitter, as you say it absolutely is not the case that the dolls serve any protective purpose.

If I remember correctly child sex abuse dolls were found in the homes of men arrested for sexual abuse of children, so it's not a matter of one or the other. And they're banned in some countries on the same basis as images of child sexual abuse.

This subject is also covered on Julie Bindel's Sept 30 podcast, an interview with Dr Kathleen Richardson. Porn Robots: What's the Problem? juliebindel.substack.com/p/porn-robots-whats-the-problem#details

"It's giving them permission to want to rape children."

Thanks for this. Etsy also sells stuff for ABNL or what ever they're called. Basically adult baby / nappy wearing stuff that can also be bondage. It's grim.

And reviewers put up their pics wearing the stuff 🤮

I didn't know Julie had a podcast! Awesome!

Christ.

Yes, she's fab!

Where can you find these things on Etsy? I need to see for myself!

The CS campaign (links above) is pretty comprehensive, there is a lot of evidence there.

I cannot find a thing on Etsy UK. Can anyone share a link please?

I don't think it's as simple as trying a few obvious search terms, sellers have been removed when items are reported so become more opaque in their descriptions and cater to special requests. "Collective Shout and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation have both conducted investigations where we reached out to Etsy sellers of adult sex dolls and asked for a childlike one, and some of the sellers were happy to comply." endsexualexploitation.org/articles/etsy-is-selling-sexual-exploitation/

Etsy haven't responded to Collective Shout's requests to prohibit such sales, remove the sellers and prevent them from returning.

Maybe tweet Caitlin Roper or Collective Shout?