*Content warning- this content may be distressing*

Child sexual exploitation material, or child sexual abuse material, refers to sexually abusive images of children. It may include photographic or video evidence of the rape, sexual abuse and torture of children and infants.

Virtual or computer-generated child sexual exploitation material is produced without the use of living children, depicting fictional children. Under Australian law, this content constitutes illegal child sexual exploitation material. The Commonwealth Criminal Code prohibits the sale, production, possession and distribution of offensive and abusive material that depicts a person, or is a representation of a person, who is or appears to be under 18. This includes virtual or animated representations of children, as well as child sex dolls.

We have previously exposed major shopping app Wish selling lifelike, child-sized sex dolls marketed for men's sexual use. These products exist to aid users in their fantasies of raping children. 

In Australia, under the Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Bill 2019, child sex dolls are classified as child pornography material. Possession of a child sex doll is illegal, as is using a carriage service to advertise or solicit them, or using a postal service to send them. 

Despite this, some advocates for child sex dolls claim they could prevent child sexual abuse and encourage their development for paedophilic use. Collective Shout's Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper responded to these arguments in an essay published last month in Arena magazine, and reprinted in full at ABC Religion and Ethics. 

"Better a robot than a real child": The spurious logic used to justify child sex dolls

By Caitlin Roper

Though highly controversial, child sex dolls are already on the market and have been sold through mainstream online retailers like Amazon and Wish for a number of years. Experts predict child sex robots will be next, and some believe they are already in production.

The highly gendered nature of sex dolls and robots is rarely acknowledged by academic supporters of the products. The vast majority of these dolls and robots are embodied female, typically designed according to pornographic standards. Research indicates that sex-doll owners are overwhelmingly men. Child sex dolls are similarly gendered and modelled on the bodies of prepubescent girls. I am yet to see a male-bodied child doll. Essentially, these products are lifelike material representations of women and girls marketed for men’s sexual use.

Academic proponents of female-bodied sex dolls and robots fail to situate the products within the wider cultural context in which they are produced — one in which gender inequality persists, where male violence against women and children remains a serious global problem, and where women and girls are raped, beaten, abused and prostituted by men. Within an existing system of male dominance and female subordination, female-bodied sex dolls reinforce women’s subordinate status and the sexual objectification of women and girls. Despite this reality, a number of academics encourage the manufacture of these products for men’s sexual use, and some actually herald child sex dolls as a therapeutic treatment for child rapists — an approach that I see as both misguided and irresponsible.

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Child-sex-doll advocates claim that childlike dolls will prevent the abuse of actual children. However, there is no assurance that paedophiles who have access to child dolls will use them instead of, and not in addition to, children. There is no evidence for the previously popular idea that men perpetrate sexual violence against women, children and other men due to uncontrollable sexual desire, or because they do not have a sufficient outlet for their urges. Likewise, there is no evidence that child sex dolls will lead to a reduction in the abuse of children.

The argument that child sex dolls could function as a sexual outlet, preventing individuals who would otherwise rape children from doing so, also fails to consider the wider cultural context in which these products are manufactured — a system of institutionalised male dominance, routine sexual objectification of women and a culture that eroticises girls.

Cultural messaging increasingly presents girls as sexually available and appealing. The “Teen” porn genre consistently features on the online pornography aggregator Pornhub’s list of most popular search terms. “Barely Legal” pornography featuring teens with pigtails, flat chests and braces can be purchased in newsagents and petrol stations. G-strings, padded bras and bikini tops, and underwear with sexually suggestive slogans are marketed to pre-teen girls. Advertising material depicts girls in sexualised and adultified ways. Schoolgirls are fetishised, and sexy-schoolgirl costumes are sold in mainstream retailers. Instagram routinely hosts sexualised content of underage girls and comment responses from predatory men. Major bookstores and online marketplaces have been exposed selling erotic e-books that feature incest and child abuse. Adult retailers sell male masturbators designed to emulate the vaginas of teenage girls — such as the Teenage Dream or Lolita Vibrating Vagina — with promotional material emphasising youth and innocence.

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I cannot help but conclude that the academic arguments in support of child sex dolls are baseless, unconvincing and are open to being hijacked by vested interests. They prioritise men’s sexual preferences over the rights of girls. Academic advocates fail to consider the gendered dynamics involved in the production of female-bodied child dolls for adult men’s sexual use, or to situate their development within a cultural context of gender inequality.

If child sex dolls function as advocates claim, they will maintain paedophiles’ sexual urges for children. Rather than encouraging restraint or investing energy into pursuing healthier relationships or sexual practices, child sex dolls enable the realistic fantasy experience of sexually abusing a child.

Child sex dolls and robots do not offer a solution to child sexual abuse. Rather, they detract from meaningful attempts to address an epidemic of child abuse and obscure the cultural drivers that contribute to it, such as male power and the sexualisation of girls. If ending child sexual exploitation is the objective, the answer will never be found in legitimising these practices.

Read the full piece here. 

This piece originally appeared in Arena Magazine no. 163 (arena.org.au). 

See also:

No evidence child sex dolls prevent child sexual abuse, says report - Collective Shout

Wish app must stop selling child sex dolls - Collective Shout

Australian Institute of Criminology releases report on child sex dolls

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released the report ‘Exploring the implications of child sex dolls’ by Rick Brown and Jane Shelling. The report discusses child sex dolls in relation to the sexualisation of children, as an “escalated form of engaging with child pornography”, the normalisation of child sexual abuse and the risk of grooming.

The authors acknowledge that there is very little empirical evidence on the implications of sex dolls and child sex dolls, and therefore also draw on research on child exploitation material and sex offences in considering the implications of sex doll use and ownership.

Potential Harms: Escalation, Desensitisation, Objectification, Commodification and Grooming

The report documents a range of potential harms associated with the production, distribution and use of child sex dolls.

It is possible that use of child sex dolls may lead to escalation in child sex offences, from viewing online child exploitation material to contact sexual offending.

It may also desensitise the user from the potential harm that child sexual assault causes, given that such dolls give no emotional feedback.

The sale of child sex dolls potentially results in the risk of children being objectified as sexual beings and of child sex becoming a commodity.

Finally, there is a risk that child-like dolls could be used to groom children for sex, in the same way that adult sex dolls have already been used.

There is no evidence that child sex dolls have a therapeutic benefit in preventing child sexual abuse. 

The authors conclude:

It is ‘reasonable to assume that interaction with child sex dolls could increase the likelihood of child sexual abuse by desensitising the doll user to the physical, emotional and psychological harm caused by child sexual abuse and normalising the behaviour in the mind of the abuser’.

We have previously exposed Wish app and Amazon for selling child sex dolls, along with a range of other replica child body parts marketed for sexual use. In response to our campaign, Wish withdrew these items from sale. 

See also:

OPEN LETTER ON THE DANGERS OF NORMALISING SEX DOLLS & SEX ROBOTS

Child sex dolls removed from online store Wish

Against her will’: Amazon sells exploitative books glorifying rape and sexualising children

Your voice does make a difference

Who said this was ok?

Collective Shout exposed Wish Shopping for selling child sex dolls months ago. 

The popular online shopping app boasting 300 million subscribers around the world, responded to complaints about the dolls by saying it would remove the items from its sales platform. It appeared they removed some of the items but many remained on the site.

Follow up complaints to Wish have been ignored. Needless to say, Wish hasn't responded with the urgency this deserves.

Child sex dolls are illegal in the UK and Australia. Speaking out against Wish Shopping's child sex dolls, Paul Green, Member of the NSW Legislative Council higlighted the stiff penalties for importing Child Sex Dolls into Australia:

Recently the Australian Border Force has intercepted the importation of nine child sex doll across Australia. The Australian Border Force has committed to pursuing the full force of the law in these cases, with penalties including fines of up to $450,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years against anyone attempting to import these objects.  

The US - where Wish Shopping Headquarters are located - is following the lead of Australia and the UK. A bill to outlaw child sex dolls under the proposed "Creeper Act" is currently before the US Senate having already passed the US House of Representatives. The Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots (CREEPER) Act will ban the importation and transportation of child sex dolls.

Wish allows businesses and manufacturers from around the world to sell through its app. By continuing to turn a blind eye to - and profit from - the criminal actions of businesses trading in child sexual abuse material, Wish is complicit. The company is worth 8.5 billion dollars, we cannot be silent while Wish profits from the sexual exploitation of children.  

Take Action: Contact Wish CEO and Sponsors 

Wish Shopping

facebook.com/wish | twitter.com/WishShopping e: support@wish.com

Wish CEO

twitter.com/sfpiotr | facebook.com/peter.szulczewski

Soccer Players for Wish's #timeonyourhands ad campaign

Robin Van Persie

twitter.com/Persie_Official | facebook.com/RobinvanPersie/

Gareth Bale

twitter.com/GarethBale11 | facebook.com/Bale

Tim Howard

twitter.com/TimHowardGK | facebook.com/timhoward/

Claudio Bravo Muñoz

twitter.com/C1audioBravo | facebook.com/ClaudioBravoOk/

Paul Pogba

facebook.com/PaulPogba/ | twitter.com/paulpogba

Gianluigi Buffon

facebook.com/GianluigiBuffon/ | twitter.com/gianluigibuffon

Neymar Jr

twitter.com/neymarjr | facebook.com/neymarjr/

LA LAKERS - Wish logo on jerseys

twitter.com/Lakers | facebook.com/losangeleslakers/

CEO, co-owner LA Lakers Jeanie Buss

twitter.com/JeanieBuss | facebook.com/JeanieBuss

Child sex dolls fuel pedophilia - why is Wish selling them?

Calling all activists! Time to get creative.

Contact the Wish CEO - Peter Szulczewski.

We've been challenging Wish shopping app to remove child-like sex dolls off their platform. The response from Wish on our Facebook page suggested they were not aware of the items that had “made it onto [their] platform” and that they were committed to removing such items “when [they] find them”.

According to The Guardian a surge in the number of seizures of child-like sex dolls by border officers has led investigators to identify dozens of previously unknown suspected paedophiles.

Content warning: This post contains content that may be distressing. 

Yesterday we exposed budget shopping app Wish selling a range of child sex dolls. We were pleased when the company responded quickly, promising to remove the child sex dolls and take action against the sellers. But then we learned more.

How long have Wish known about child sex dolls?

The response from Wish on our Facebook page suggested they were not aware of the items that had “made it onto [their] platform” and that they were committed to removing such items “when [they] find them”.

But what about products they have verified for quality, like this sex doll complete with a blue tick? Did they know about them?

Yesterday we learned Wish has been selling inappropriate products for some time. One woman recounted deleting the app after being confronted with plastic vaginas for sale, one of which was a ‘child’ model. Another woman commenting on our Facebook page described how her twelve-year-old son using the app was confronted by ads for sex toys, despite providing his age upon sign up.

Child sex dolls were only the beginning

Since releasing yesterday’s blog post, we have discovered a substantial array of disturbing products available for purchase on Wish. In addition to child sex dolls, we have found realistic silicone replica vaginas, female torsos and backsides, replica female mouths and throats, disembodied child sex doll legs, feet, and heads for sale, all for men’s sexual use.

Activist Melinda Liszewski documented the chilling range of lifelike replica body parts for sale on a Twitter thread, noting the rave reviews from male consumers. View the images here- Warning, graphic content.

We have also discovered hidden spy cams for purchase alongside imagery depicting a man secretly filming a woman as she undresses. This criminal violation of women’s privacy is now a popular genre of pornography.

Wish is a major international company, with over 30 million followers on Facebook alone. The app is rated 12+, appropriate for users aged twelve and up. How could a major company be so negligent? And what are they doing about it?

It's not enough to simply remove child sex dolls from sale. All of the replica body parts modelled on the bodies of women and children for men's sexual use must go, and Wish needs to implement a policy to prevent this happening ever again.

Call to Action

Delete your Wish account.

Contact Wish on Facebook, Twitter, or via Customer Support (if you have the app).

Report individual items at report-abuse@wish.com 

Got an iPhone? Hop on the App Store and leave a review, or contact the App Store on Twitter. 

If you have an Android phone, visit Google Play to leave a review or report the app, and contact them on Twitter.

Update: Wish promises to remove child sex dolls from sale, but what about other replica body parts meant for men's sexual use?

Wish has responded in the comment thread on our Facebook post as follows: 

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Content warning: This post contains content that may be distressing. 

Budget shopping app Wish is selling a range of child sex dolls for men to simulate sexual abuse.

The dolls, which are designed to look like pre-teen girls, are often between 100 and 130 cm tall, with emphasis on their “flat chest”. They are deliberately posed in such a way as to emphasise their youth and innocence, shyly looking away from the camera and tilting their heads in a childlike way. Their vulnerability is accentuated in images of them sitting cross-legged on a bed in their knickers, or naked in the bath. There is a suggestion of sexuality, with singlet straps falling off shoulders, fingers lingering over mouths, or shorts pulled down to reveal themselves. 

Product descriptions of the dolls emphasise how “real” they feel:

“Buying a sex doll can be a daunting task at first, but understanding the various types and benefits of each will make your decision easier. Sex dolls are made with natural, safe, real silicone so that each gorgeous girl feels real.”

Even sex dolls with large, porn-inspired out of proportion breasts still appear very childlike. One wears a cropped Pikachu t-shirt, from the cartoon Pokemon.

These items exist to aid users in their fantasies of raping children. The very sale of these dolls is an endorsement of paedophilia. Why is Wish promoting crimes of violence against children?

Wish is not an obscure website. Its Facebook page alone has almost 30 million followers. A major shopping app recommended for users aged 12 and above is profiting from the sale of child sex dolls. We cannot accept this.

Call to Action

Delete your Wish account.

Contact Wish on Facebook, Twitter, or via Customer Support (if you have the app).

Got an iPhone? Hop on the App Store and leave a review, or contact the App Store on Twitter.

If you have an Android phone, visit Google Play to leave a review or report the app, and contact them on Twitter.

We congratulate Amazon today for removing the anatomically correct child sex dolls that have been for sale on its website. The sale of such dolls and similar material has earned Amazon a spot on the National Center’s Dirty Dozen List for the past two years.