Etsy continues to host degrading, fetish and incest-themed content despite updated policy

It was 2020 when we first exposed global online marketplace Etsy selling child sex abuse dolls – and for hosting sellers customising dolls in the likeness of actual children. Our investigation was featured in news.com.au. 

Early the following year, we exposed incest and abuse-themed products being sold on the platform. In response, fashion designer Anna Cordell shut her Etsy shop (alongside a number of sellers) and, backed by us, started a change.org petition calling on the platform to remove this merchandise.

Three years and almost 70,000 signatures later, we applauded Etsy for their new policy banning sex dolls, pornography and incest-themed content. The site even blocked search terms “sex doll” and “porn”. 

Sexist caps removed, sexualised toys and kids clothing gone, sex industry shares dumped, paedophilic Twitter accounts shut down, child sex abuse doll accounts pulled, outdoor ad rules tightened, UltraTune ads dropped, ‘Penis Pacifier’ disappeared - all because our supporters took action!

*Update* 

Today we launched a campaign to force The Base Warehouse to remove a penis dummy from its stores.

Many supporters have taken action and called out this product which links babies and oral sex and contributes to a paedophilic aesthetic.

In part of its dismissive response, The Base Warehouse says “Sorry it is offends you” with a hand and heart emoticon.

This is not an issue of personal offence or taste. Our opposition is based on harm to children.

Researcher Rebecca Whisnant distinguishes between offence and harm. Offence is “something that happens in one’s head”, whereas harm is “an objective condition, not a way of feeling; to be harmed is to have one’s interests set back, to be made worse off, to have one’s circumstances made worse than they were....”

We have documented this creeping increase in associating children with sex for 15 years (for example https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-dark-world-of-paedophilia-exposed-20140413-zqu8v.html).

Attempts to paint those who object to products like this as easily offended, prudish or hung up is a deliberate tactic to silence those who might threaten company profits. It is also a way of avoiding engaging in meaningful discussions about how companies like this contribute to the sexualisation of babies and children.

We will not let The Base Warehouse reduce our advocacy for children as personal offence. We will continue to remind them of their social responsibility and not turn child sex offending into a gag.

The Hon Michelle Rowland MP

Minister for Communications

PO Box 6022

House of Representatives

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

Re Pilot program for age verification in Australia

Dear Minister,

We the undersigned are writing to request a re-think of the Federal Government’s decision not to proceed with an age verification system to help protect children from exposure to pornography, as recently announced by yourself on behalf of the Government.

Early porn exposure harms developing sexual templates, contributes to damaging stereotypes, the development of sexist ideas, the normalisation of violence against women and a rise in child-on-child sexual abuse. These harms were placed on the record by academics, educators, child safeguarding NGOs, and experts in child development and welfare in submissions to the Inquiry into Age Verification for Online Wagering and Online Pornography conducted by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. 

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