One year ago Anna Cordell – a Melbourne fashion designer, musician and mother of five – launched a petition calling on Etsy to stop selling child sex abuse dolls, replica child body parts and incest and child abuse-themed products. She had just shut down her Etsy store after seeing our posts exposing these harmful products sold on the online platform.
Since then, Anna’s petition has attracted almost 57 000 signatures. But Etsy has been silent, ignoring our concerns and continuing to prioritise profit over the most vulnerable members of our community – children. Sign here.
We recently exposed Etsy sellers of illegal child sex abuse dolls and replica body parts attempt to evade detection by updating product descriptions for child-like dolls with terms like “adult” and “full-size”. Child sex abuse dolls as small as 100 cm, with facial features unequivocally modelled on young girls, that were previously marketed as girls are now marketed as women.
While these products remain, Etsy is doing significant damage to their brand. A number of Etsy sellers have reported shutting up shop in response, and social media users have expressed their disgust:
“A year of not selling via Etsy for me. Cannot believe they have ignored this serious issue.”
“A year of not buying from Etsy for me. Thus, a year of small businesses losing out during a time when they needed support. All because Etsy wants to kowtow to larger companies that have no ethics or morals. Shame Etsy, Shame!”
If Etsy thinks we are going away, they are mistaken. We will continue to hold them accountable for facilitating and profiting from the sale of illegal child sexual abuse material on their platform.
See also:
Petition: Etsy: Stop selling incest and child abuse themed merch!
Our investigation exposing Etsy for selling child sex abuse dolls
Beyond Fantasy: How Etsy’s child-abuse and incest-themed products put girls at risk
Not a ‘Victimless’ Crime: How Child Sex Abuse Dolls Facilitate Crimes Against Children
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