Etsy search for children’s programme showing dildos

[SilverCatStripes]

This isn’t a feminist issue per se , its a safeguarding one. I posted this in aibu and was surprised to see people falling over themselves to normalise having a rainbow dildo coming up in a search for
a popular children’s programme - I know that the majority of posters who use the FWR board are sensible when it comes to safeguarding matters - so please let me know your thoughts !

This is my original post :

Searches on Etsy for Children’s programmes returning dildos- FFS!!

I have just been searching for Gravity Falls merch on Etsy, and was presented with Pride Dildo in the search results, for anyone not familiar with the show it is a childrens show, primarily aimed at the pre teen/early teen market and children would be likely to use “Gravity Falls” as a search on Etsy - what pride dildo’s have to do with Gravity Falls is completely beyond me , this is hugely inappropriate particularly as one of the characters (who is 11 I think ?) is famous for her rainbow jumpers.

I have tweeted Etsy (linked tweet below- don’t care if it is outing will
name change at some point) but this isn’t just me thinking this inappropriate is it -

am I being unreasonable to think there shouldn’t be dildos coming up in searches for children’s programmes ??

I don't use Etsy and have never searched for pride or rainbow or, indeed, dildo. I think this is all on Etsy and not on any of us users.

It’s there for me.

Etsy search algorithm does not use cookies.

In the past I’ve suggested my tween look on Etsy for certain things. They don’t need an account to do so. I wouldn’t think they’d come across adult content. So that’s a bit crap.

Report the listing - at the bottom.

You can block sites on your wifi if you dont want your kids to be able to access them, its a site that tells you you should be 18 to use it.

I dont know but someone who can go about ordering stuff online is probably old enough that they wont be scarred for life at a picture of a dildo.
If you think your children are not mature enough to cope with an image like that popping up, they should not have unrestricted access to the internet, especially to sites that are for over 18s.

I don't like things that are adult oriented appearing on teen show related searches, and it lots of cases i think it is innapropriate and I would prefer that it wasnt there.
But its a site for adults, and its not Etsys fault if children who are unsupervised get onto it, you dont prove your age for lots of adult websites, but its not the internets job to police what peoples children look at online, that is for the parents to do.

Never mind the children, I don't want to see dildos when searching for something completely and totally unrelated to sex toys.

It's there for me. Comes from 'spanky's toys'. It is completely etsy's fault.
This is definately not an adult only site, all that T & C stuff is about actual purchasing and account holding. There is nothing to distinguish it as an Adult only x rated site. No registration or sign in to enter the site. No banner saying unsuitable for under 18s.

Reporting it will do nothing, Etsy don't care.
Apart from anything else, the T+C to sell on Etsy say that all items must be either
a) homemade
or b) vintage.
I'm guessing that the dildo is neither of these. Actually kind of hoping it's not vintage!
However the site overflows with mass resellers selling all sorts of stuff, Etsy don't care, do nothing about it, as it brings them in revenue.

Etsy aren't likely to care. The "actual" results shouldn't be on there either due to copyright, so they're hardly going to be bothered that a dildo's among the listings when they all break t&cs

I had a search, and couldn't find it under 'Gravity Falls' but when I put 'Gravity Falls rainbow' it was on the first page. I agree, no one wants to see these when searching for children's tv show merchandise, let alone children. And there's nothing obvious when browsing Etsy that it's a site for over 18s only. Also, if using a search engine, Etsy is one of the sites that will often come up with 'shopping' results. Again, nothing preventing you just getting linked from google if under 18.

Agree Etsy sells all sorts of crap that isn't homemade.

Rainbowzebra also makes a good point that the sellers shouldn't be selling Gravity Falls merch in the first place due to copyright issues.
Again, Etsy don't care. They sometimes have a purge and kick out some that do this, but it comes from the company being affected rather than Etsy itself.

It’s there for me as well, and I can guarantee I have never searched for any sex toys, on Etsy or otherwise.
But then, as I said before, perverts are going to co-opt anything they can, look at those My Little Pony human hybrid figures.